Tetsu
by UnrealFox
Summary: The World is safe with Tai-Lung gone, and 8 months have passed fairly peacefully. But the peace won't last for very long when the fallen Snow Leopard returns for what he thinks he rightfully deserves. A 'Dynasty of the Fated and Cursed' Remix.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: This is the _'Evil'_ Rehashing of 'Dynasty of the Fated and Cursed'. Or not exactly evil, more like less . . . good. Anyways, I appreciate your interest and please enjoy the intro . . . **

* * *

**Tetsu**

_Day -237 : Midnight_

_China – Far Outside the Valley of Peace_

"...I'm in pain... Agonizing pain... '

'Mother... Father... Everything hurts... My heart... My soul... My flesh... Am I losing blood or am I losing pride? Am I suffering a massive injury, or am I dying inside?'

'Everything hurts, mother... make the pain stop father... it hurts so bad... I can't die... I don't want to die... I have... to fulfill... my goal...'

'I want... a second chance... but it hurts... so bad... I don't want to die...'

'I can't die..."

The cries of the dead were often unheard by the living. However even travelers without sensitive ears, or an affinity for hearing and speaking to the dead, would be able to hear the suffering of this ghoul. For this particular howling undead... actually wasn't dead, although you wouldn't come to that conclusion from a single glance. He had been flayed of his fur and flesh, revealing the veins and pulsing muscles that would normally be hidden under his thick gray speckled hide. He was lucky that both his eyes were still in his head, but the blood that had washed over his corneas denied any vision except for crimson haze... The flowing essence had to serve as his eyelids, for he didn't have eyelids, or skin at the moment. The cadaver wasn't able to move due to the pain he was in, although any movement that occurred was muscle contractions and nerves sending off random signals past the unrealistic pain his frame was being driven through.

Pain wouldn't comfortably describe the agony that the fallen hero was being put through, for living through such feverish suffering is a fate slightly worse than the pain of dying. He didn't want to die, he wanted to live. This fallen hero, this tyrant merely wanted to rise to his feet, and find a place to recover all that he'd lost... This didn't specifically mean his missing fur and flesh, but it was included.

"... I … cannot... I … Will Not... die..." The zombie began to growl out loud, as he forced one of his skinned arms into the air, to make a fist at what he was hoping was the moon. A roar escaped him as a gentle breeze blew onto his naked muscles and the pain he was currently in, reached new heights... It was agonizing … It was unfathomable, but he was enduring... Slowly, he pulled himself onto his skinless feet but he wasn't standing for very long. As soon as his two feet were the only things touching the ground, meaning he had managed to actually stand in his horrifying condition, his body gave out and went back to the ground in a strobing flurry of burning, stinging pain. The zombie fell into his hands and knees, which had to be the least painful of all ways to fall, but he was still breathless from the lull-less torture of being flayed.

"God... such... Agony..." The tyrant managed to hiss through his own lipless face. "No... I won't die... I can't die... I will … recover." He shuddered and attempted to rise again, but all he managed to do was force more of his precious blood to leak from every crease and fold of his fully exposed muscles and flesh. The blood even flowed across his lidless eyes, but his vision was temporarily cleared long enough to see a bright light was surrounding him. At first he thought there was actual sunlight around him, but there was no warmth cooking his flesh... the air was cold, and he felt as though he were freezing... So the light surrounding him had to be something more malevolent …

"The Wuxi Fingerhold?" The zombie shivered. The first thought that had come to his mind was the very flash of divine brilliance that had flayed and broken him in the first place. He could only see a small glimpse of a shadow on the stained dirt under him before his vision faded back to bloody obscurity. He thought The Dragon Warrior was here to finish the job that he had started and there was no way the skinless devil could defend himself. His fangs were already bared due to the lack of flesh, and his muscles already pulsing with both anxiety and agony, but he wasn't feeling hostile or malevolent... Terror had gripped him. He wasn't ready to fight, how could he be? He wasn't prepared for another explosion for he didn't think he'd survive the first... However his spirit wouldn't allow him to crumble and back down... It was merely his time...

"Are you here to finish me off? I'm already on my knees, just kill me, or I'll come back and kill you, I swear it." Tai-Lung confessed, being half prepared for his complete incineration. But to his joy, he wasn't destroyed... He instead was liberated.

"Shhhh... You're condition is grave. You'll never survive on your own..." Responded a deep and wise old voice flowing into the holes where Tai-Lung's ear canals would be located.

"You're... not the Dragon Warrior? Then I beg of you... Aide me, and I'll repay you anyway I can." The skinless Tai-Lung coughed, spitting more of his precious life blood to the stained earth that was now sticking to his hastily drying, exposed muscles.

"Shhh..." The mysterious figure shushed him once again. Tai-Lung didn't know what to think, or what to do... Inwardly, he was hoping that he hadn't damned himself by mentioning revenge to this stranger. All he wanted was to be restored back to health so he could return to the Jade Palace and right everything that he had done completely wrong... He had finally began to fade, the unbearable agony coursing through his body had finally made it's way to his brain and nervous system. The lights went off in Tai-Lung's mind and his skinless mass collapsed in front of his apparent savior right as the brilliant glow surrounding him faded.

"At least you'll be silent now..." The figure whispered as he crouched beside the bleeding tyrant. "If you think revenge is your fate, you're sadly mistaken, Setsuna... Your future is a lot brighter than that, but you'll never see your future if you can't restore your standing in the eyes of the righteous and overcome your greatest challenge." The dark feline beside Tai-Lung didn't waste anymore time talking. He began to chant in Japanese for a few short moments. At the end of his whispering, he and Tai-Lung were suddenly swallowed by a burst of purple smoke, as if a firework had detonated at their feet.

Once the smoke had cleared, the two men had vanished completely. The only thing remaining at the scene was the vomit, short stitches of flesh and blood that had soaked into the unearthed dirt of the impact area... and two sets of foot prints in the moist dirt...

.

.

_Day 1 : Morning_

_China – The Jade Palace_

**_* ! DONG ! *_**

"Good Morning Master!" The hall echoed as the morning bell rang, signaling for the Furious Five to exit into the hall to greet their Grand Master, Shifu.

Shifu was silent for a moment, as he examined the hall from his usual spot. Everyone was accounted for, Master Mantis and Master Viper were standing tall at attention. Master Tigress appeared slightly drowsy, along with Master Crane but it wasn't something that Shifu felt like mentioning. Master Monkey had a grin on his face so perhaps he slept the best out of everyone this morning so that was good, he would need that good mood for the work they were to be doing in the Valley today... Now all that was left was …

"The Panda..." Shifu muttered out loud.

"Is he still asleep?" Tigress sneered, while guiding her eyes towards the Dragon Warrior's door.

"How can he not hear the bell?" Crane shook his head with a sigh.

"Oh lay off him," Monkey added as he began to stretch, but returned to his saluting stance. "He's not as fit as we are, and he works for just as long."

Master Mantis stroked his antennae for a moment, "But he's the Dragon Warrior. Shouldn't he be able to do all of this without so much as breaking a sweat?"

"Maybe he can do it with more training?" Spoke Master Viper from her place in front of her own room door.

Shifu sighed and began to walk up the hallway, not yet dismissing everyone from their ready stances. He swiftly threw open Po's room door to reveal the Dragon Warrior sleeping half in-half out of his bed with stacks of empty and stinking noodle bowls erecting in different directions like intentional decorations in the corners of his room.

"How in...?" Shifu took a step back from Po's room, highly shocked at how disheveled Po kept his living area. "This is disgusting... Bowls? Socks? Underwear! PANDA! WAKE UP!"

Within a second of Shifu shouting, the Dragon Warrior popped back to reality and consciousness like a toy. Without even showing an ounce of fatigue, or drowsiness he rolled his girth over to sit on his rump and wave at Master Shifu and the nosy faces of the Furious Five sneaking a peek at Po behind Shifu's turned back.

"Oh, hey guys. What's up?" Po said, standing up and patting off his shorts. It was then that he noticed the unhappy scowl on Shifu's face and the angle at which his ears had been lowered in irritation. "Oh uh... I'm sorry Master, did I miss the first bell?"

"Yes... YES you DID!" Shifu shouted, only half as irritated as he lead onto. "And your room is un-ac-ceptable! I want it cleaned by the end of the day!"

"Heh heh, yeah, I kind of let the litter get away from me. So uh, why not clean it now? Are we gunna be busy today Master?" Po asked curiously, while stepping out into the hallway, passively forcing the Furious Five to return to their ready stances now that they were within eye shot of Shifu's judgment once again.

"Yes, you will be." Shifu responded, waving his wooden flute in a hand to set the Furious Five '_At ease',_ finally. "You six will be finishing up the Valley Restoration project."

"Augh..." The Furious Five sighed.

"Master..." Tigress began to complain, "You know we've restored every building in the Valley, all that's left is the hole that's under the Valley and the outermost wall of the Valley, that's out past the farm land."

"That's precisely what I'm asking." Shifu explained, "If that tunnel is discovered by any bandit leaders fighting under Tai-Lung's name, the Valley could be in trouble if the tunnel gets expanded."

"But Master," Crane stepped towards the red panda and unfolding a wing to tip his hat off his head and onto his back, he was indoors after all. "That tunnel smells like a bathroom, and it's been nearly eight months since Tai-Lung was defeated by Po's Wuxi Fingerhold. I don't think anyone will want to fight for Tai-Lung anymore, and-"

Shifu interrupted Crane's argument by holding up his wooden flute to the white Crane's beak. "I don't want argument, Master Crane. The sooner you and the others fix the tunnel, the sooner you all will be taught how to unlock your inner chi spirits."

Crane was quiet, along with everyone else. Hearing that they were all going to _actually_ learn something new, instead of rehash what they had been doing for years woke up Tigress, curled Viper's tail, sent a shiver down Monkey's tail, caused Mantis' pincers to shudder and such juicy news made Po's mouth water.

"C-can you say that again Master?" Crane asked, sounding completely floored by the news.

"I – will – teach – you – something – new." Shifu repeated himself.

"Yes Master, anything you ask Master." Crane saluted again.

"Anything you want Master." Tigress jumped in beside Crane and saluted as well.

"Your wish, is our command Master, Shifu." Monkey Mantis and Viper all chimed in, also excited about the idea of learning something new.

"A new skill? Awesome, that's gunna be awesome!" Po cheered as he stood with everyone in front of Shifu.

Shifu always found the fact that all his students were taller than he, all except for Mantis of course, but no matter how old tall or old they were... If Shifu could introduce something completely different into their training sessions the six of them would cheer like children getting their favorite dessert and would obey any command or request the old Master could think of.

"Well, now that you all are clear on what awaits in your very near future. I expect that tunnel to be filled completely."

"With God-Speed." Responded everyone in unison, including Po.

"Then go and have your breakfast, and meet me at the base of the stairs in one hour."

"Uh, Which stairs Master?" Po asked as Shifu turned his back on the six saluting soldiers.

"In the Valley, at the bottom of the mountain, past the training ground, before you actually reach the village. Meet me there." Responded Shifu, and he waved his wooden flute behind his back before turning the corner and exiting the student dormitories. He signaled the '_At Ease'_ call once more, which the group all heeded to, and began to swiftly excitedly chat about learning a new ability.

"What did you think he meant exactly by '_Inner Chi Spirits'?_" Viper asked Tigress, slithering up to the stretching Master of Tiger style.

"I'm not exactly sure, but I can't wait to see it." Tigress replied and released a satisfied huff as her back popped. "Oh that feels good."

"Back problems Tigress? What you need, is acupuncture!" Mantis chirped and leapt from Monkey's shoulder, onto Tigress' to begin tugging and massaging at shoulder he had landed upon.

"Hey hey hey," Tigress protested and batted away Mantis like he was an even smaller insect. "I'm fine, I don't need massages and I certainly don't _want_ your acupuncture. I just slept rough was all. Besides, I don't think I could settle my spine to relax enough for anything to work. I'm too excited about what Shifu is going to reveal."

"Hey, think it will hurt?" Crane asked, preening his feathers. "You know like '_Dragon Warrior first day of real training instead of reading about it __**training**__'_."

Mantis, Viper, Monkey and Tigress all began to chuckle as Po scratched his head, feeling his cheeks getting hot.

"I'm only kidding, Dragon Warrior." Crane apologized, "Although I did expect you to leave come the first sunrise."

Viper and Monkey nodded. "So did we."

"Hey guys, guys." Po held up his hands in defense. "We could go on about how embarrassing my training was, or how terrible I looked in my first 24 hours of being in the Jade Palace, but we're going to be learning NEW stuff soon. So how about we get some food, and get down to the Valley huh?"

"Sounds like a plan!" Mantis cheered.

"I suppose I could eat." Viper commented and began to exit the hall. "But you're seriously going to need to clean your room before he turns _you_ into a blue and black panda."

Po stood still, "Shifu can change colors?"

Monkey laughed out loud, "She meant, he'll hit you... a lot, if you don't clean your room, Po. But he gave you the whole day to do it so, lets eat first."

"Ok then, I guess I'll get those bowls out when we get back." The Dragon Warrior laughed nervously while leaving, but he stopped in mid stride to turn back to Tigress who was idling in the middle of the hallway by herself.

"Tigress?" Po asked, "You coming? I'll make you something special."

"I'll be there, but need to take care of some things. So leave me an open seat an a hot bowl ok?" Tigress responded in a happier than usual attitude.

"No problem!" Po said with a warm smile and thumbs up, and turned to exit, leaving Tigress alone.

"... Who '_Thumbs Up',_ anymore? That boy needs to quit reading all those graphic books." Tigress however, let it go, and turned away and proceeded further back into the hall of the student dormitories to approach Tai-Lung's old room. She entered and shut the door silently behind her. The room had been vacant for years, so it was more like a study than anything else, especially for Tigress, but more than anything, it was the perfect place for her to escape and actually relax. Tai-Lung's old bed was a lot softer than her own, and simply sitting on it and meditating eased her mind and body a lot swifter than anything else that she had been doing to calm herself down for the past few days.

Being utterly defeated by Tai-Lung, then later hearing that he was completely destroyed by The Dragon Warrior left her with a sick feeling in her stomach that Tigress had been attempting to alleviate on her own for a few months. It wasn't the pain of loss, not personal lost at least, nor was it a juvenile sense of lost love... She was partially more upset that there was never a chance for a rematch than she was irritated by the fact that Po, being a flop, had managed to surpass the Furious Five in less than a week. He was a Kung Fu miracle, a lot like how Tai-Lung was a Kung Fu Prodigy. It was unreal... completely unheard of, and her pride took the largest hit because of the recent events, and here months later Tigress is still, _partially_ mulling over the entire ordeal.

She was, however, happy that Tai-Lung was gone. That meant she didn't have to share the transcending feeling of being in his room with anyone, or at least not until others came looking for her. His room, his bed, his floor boards all felt like hers now and by comparison, she felt more comfortable in his place than she did in her own. And secretly, Tigress had an inkling that Tai-Lung wasn't dead . . . being here made her thoughts more clairvoyant and the very tunnel that Shifu is so aching to be patched is probably where Tai-Lung's cadaver, or his remains will be kept... Perhaps Tigress was the only of the Furious Five to think that Tai-Lung was still alive, but she knew the smell of the tunnel wasn't because of sewage, or farm manure... The scent was the decayed flesh of the snow leopard being skinned alive as he was propelled through the dirt.

She had never been inside the tunnel, but she didn't have to enter the tunnel to know put those facts together. The queezy ache in Tigress' stomach had passed, and she unfolded her legs and threw her body backwards on the vacant bedroll that used to belong to a murderer.

"He can't be dead... This room isn't haunted enough for him to be dead... Which means he'll come back for Po, he'll come back... not for the Dragon Scroll, but he'll come back for revenge..." Tigress spoke with all confidence like she was a case worker for a serial killer.

"Po is technically still in danger... He may have won, but I know it wasn't by sheer skill... No one knew the Wuxi Fingerhold could be triggered so easily, nor did we know the catalyst to make it so deadly..." Tigress was talking to herself as she got up off of Tai-Lung's bed and approached his desk to begin thumbing through a journal that she had been keeping. "I need to get closer to the Dragon Warrior..." She whispered to no one but the walls.

* * *

**Chapter 2 coming soon . . .**


	2. Chapter 2

.

**Tetsu**

**.**

**II**

**.**

_Day 3 : Noon_

_Mongolia – Chorh Gom Prison_

_._

_._

.

Tai-Lung's hands were freezing, but he was used to the cold. He had grown accustomed to frost, especially by being a snow leopard... He had recovered amazingly swift under the care of his savior after the terrible day he had been defeated and left for dead miles from his home... The Valley of Peace, and instead he was now here, in Chorh Gom Prison high in Mongolia. His flesh had been returned before he was even certain of what had occurred to displace him so far from China, Shifu and the Dragon Warrior, but he didn't question the details, he was merely happy to be alive and recovering... Although for the first few months he wasn't able to even walk, much to his displeasure he even needed help going to the bathroom for a while, but the black panther that had rescued him didn't seem to mind aiding the grown Snow Leopard in taking care of himself and his functions ... It was weird.

The black panther Tai-Lung had grown to accept, was a strange old man. Inside his heart, Tai-Lung knew that he owed this feline an even greater debt than merely the act of saving his life...

This person he somehow knew from long long ago, but his looks were so deceiving that the snow leopard had no idea as to why he felt that way in the first place. People who Tai-Lung would actually associate himself with were of a bit younger breed... Around Po and Tigress' age, instead of a coddling old wrinkled husk of martial arts knowledge like his savior. The old feline's fur was darker than most nights-capes... His appearance told of travel, and hardships, possibly even famine and malnutrition judging by how lightly build his muscle structure was... Or at least compared to himself. Tai-Lung was still a masterfully built male, sculpted from the finest genes, but the black panther in front of him had a physique like a long distance runner that enjoys salads. His choice of clothing was particularly odd as well... Honestly, the only part of his attire that could be considered clothing was his pants... They were similar to Tai-Lung's, minus the cross etched design that used to decorate the snow leopard's choice of pants.

However now, Tai-Lung was being forced to wear the same, dull black and design-less slacks that the old man was. They looked more like scrubs than they did actual pants, which could be worn during the day to an event. Tai-Lung remained shirtless, while the panther instead mummified himself with bandages, that were stained with age. The bandages upon the panther covered almost all of his upper body, revealing only his black unkempt shoulder fur, and his neck. His paws were even coated in the same aged gauze for some strange reason that Tai-Lung had yet to ever ask. His fur was fairly dirty in appearance, but you couldn't really pick up a stench off of him, nor could you really smell him, as a matter of fact. His face was old, in appearance, but his eyes were painful to look into. Those eyes reminded Tai-Lung of something... part of himself, due to the pain, but … at the same time... Something more, something deeper that he couldn't fully put his claw on, but; that was a question for another time. On his cheeks, directly under each eye, were tattooed with white triangles that pointed downward towards his body and there were two '_tear drop'_ like marks that rose up the bridge of his nose, towards his forehead into the field of aged white dreadlocks that then arched down his back. The look was so familire but at the same time... so foreign. Even stranger than everything else mentioned, the one thing that made Tai-Lung think that he perhaps knew, the black panther at some point of the past was that... his ears... were HUGE. They were large and wide like Shifu's ears, and he hadn't seen a set of ears like that one anyone but the Wu Sisters and he'd never seen them up close.

Tai-Shen, Tai-Lung's savior, wasn't the best looking feline in the world, nor was he the youngest, but probably the strangest by far. One thing that Tai-Lung did ask about this old man however, was about the only truly decorative piece of outwear that isn't normally seen on _anyone._ A large Yin-Yang, made of Ivory and Onyx, that hung from his chest. It was as though the, clearly heavy, object was stuck on like a childrens tattoo, or better yet like a dart in soft wood. Whenever Tai-Shen would leap, shuffle around, or perform an act of agility, much to Tai-Lung's surprise, the token resting on his chest never moved, or wavered against the bandages. As thought it were a logo, the symbol refused to ever budge from the black panther's chest. When the snow leopard did decide to finally question Tai-Shen about the mystery of the object, he wasn't given a clear answer, but when he asked _'Why?'_ Tai-Shen wore it, he got the simple response... "_Balance..."_ It didn't mean anything to him then, and it still didn't mean anything even after Tai-Lung was forced to sit still and recover for months.

Although the time of being a personal assistant ended fairly quickly for the Tai-Shen, and Tai-Lung's incubation period of recovery had been throttled ahead by years due to the panther's very strange and potent chi abilities. Without help, Tai-Lung would have never survived the night he'd been blown up, but with the help of his savior, his had not only been saved, but the recovery period had been sped up from the time of three years, to only a few months. Tai-Lung was in the middle of rigorous training. It had never been revealed to Tai-Lung, exactly what type of Martial Arts the black panther practiced, but Tai-Lung was more interested in learning how to use chi. His enthusiasm was stoked like an open flame when Tai-Shen told Tai-Lung that learning how to use chi didn't take years; in fact, it only takes hours. However mastering it, can take a life time.

Tai-Lung's hands were surrounded in a solid layer of ice that appeared to be an extension of his own paws, but the tiny ice crystals that were rapid forming on his fist and up his arms were quickly falling to the hard stone under his feet. It was only his second day of chi training, and he was already able to summon and dismiss his chi. However now, he needed to focus and command it in order to properly control and manipulate it, but his mind was wandering. Time was slipping past him while he was here in Chorh Gom Prison, almost as quickly as it was the very first time he was here, however instead of sleeping through the weeks and months, Tai-Lung was actually enjoying himself... and he was hardly able to keep track of time.

"Hey old man," Tai-Lung spoke, clearly interrupting his own train of thought. "How long has it been, how long have we been here...?"

"Eight months, and three days..." The black panther responded. He was sitting on a throne of twisted bark, wooden planks and rusty broken nails. It looked like crap, but it did it's job... which was to; remain standing when someone decided to sit on it. So neither feline complained because the 2nd grade excuse for woodcarving did _at least_ remain upright when a rump was present. "Why do you ask...?"

"I … was just wondering." Tai-Lung replied while trying to follow through with his apparent elder's instructions. "What do I do next?"

Tai-Shen laughed lightly. He knew Tai-Lung was having a blast. He knew this feline more than he knew himself, and anything _Martial Arts _would make Tai-Lung lose focus of everything. However his focus was wavering, so the dark feline decided to jog the younger feline's memory. "You're supposed to be training in focus and control, Tai-Lung. Try to embrace the ice as it flows from your heart and into your fists..."

"...Um ok." Tai-Lung didn't know how to exactly translate that, but '_Embrace'_ usually meant, '_Enjoy'_ what you were currently doing. So Tai-Lung attempted to do just that... and attempted to enjoy the ice literally forming at the ends of his arms. It wasn't easy, and it looked embarrassing.

The panther could see the obvious error in his choice of words and decided to offer another suggestion. "What you're supposed to be doing isn't, _Mastering _your chi, you are merely trying to do is_ understand it_... Try opening your hand."

"Open it? But my hand is completely frozen." Tai-Lung protested. "This _Aisu Chi_, as you call it, didn't come with a manual. What does _Aisu_ mean anyway? Ice? Why don't the Japanese just say Ice?"

"Stop complaining, and is it freezing you?" The panther asked, folding his arms over his chest, partially hiding the giant Yin-Yang that rested upon his person weightlessly.

"No." The snow leopard quickly responded lifting one of his two frozen appendages into the air.

"Then you're learning. Otherwise you would be suffering from _toushousha_." Tai-Shen muttered, accidentally spilling a bit of Japanese in place of this land's native language.

"What's _Toushousha_, old man?" Tai-Lung asked, holding up both his hands to his face now, looking at his own reflection against the ice.

"_Toushousha, _means _Frostbite_. It's a medical condition that means that apart of your body has been badly damaged by ice. When a part of your body freezes, the cells begin to die, if caught early it can be cured and reversed. If unchecked or uncorrected, some men need limbs completely amputated in order to prevent death."

"Um..." Tai-Lung was silent, pondering something in his mind.

"To Amputate, is to surgically remove a limb or appendage, Tai-Lung." The black panther explained, answering the question before it was even asked. "Didn't that red panda teach you anything about medicine _or_ first aid?"

"No no that..." Tai-Lung sighed deeply, staring at his own reflection in his opened palms.

"Oh I see, very impressive. You've managed to open your palms without destroying the husk of ice that surrounds them. You're remarkable boy. I'm impressed." The elder panther applauded for a moment, rising out of his chair for a standing ovation, but Tai-Lung wasn't concerned with his latest feat... he wasn't concerned with what he was staring _into_... it was more important what he was staring _at_.

The panther sighed, "Are you not pleased with yourself, Tai-Lung?"

Tai-Lung slowly lowered his hands, which is when the ice surrounding his paws began to shatter and break away from him like dried mud. "No... it's my face... Haven't you noticed?"

"Oh..." The panther was silent for a moment while Tai-Lung partially grieved over his own damaged looks. "You mean, the scars... They'll recover s- … Tai-Lung. You need to give the healing a bit more time."

"Well you're the one who was healing me!" Tai-Lung quickly turned from grieving to growling. "Why didn't you tell me I looked like... like this!" Tai-Lung held his paws up to his face as he approached the black panther, pointing out the still healing wounds that plagued his once flawless appearance. He had deep scars on his fur, that were still pink and untouched by fur. The scars on him had been caused by the immediate explosion of chi that exploded into his flesh from the Wuxi Fingerhold. He didn't mind the scars on his legs, or the ones on his arm, even the disgusting slash that went diagonally across his chest could be overlooked but... Tai-Lung rather enjoyed his face remaining... rugged.

"Why can't you heal my face?" Tai-Lung snarled, stepping up to the black panther who's ears began to lay back against his skull. Tai-Lung took this for weakness and advanced even closer, but he was completely mistaken. Before Tai-Lung knew what had happened, he was gasping for air and off of his own feet. His eyes had apparently been betraying him for months, because from a once over on the black panther, Tai-Lung could clearly see that the Black Panther probably weighed about 190lbs, and couldn't be any taller than him, but somehow Tai-Lung was off the ground and being choked by a hand that felt as though it belonged to a king rhino.

He was set back down on the ground where he fell to his knees for a moment and cleared his throat.

"W-what the hell was that old man?" The snow leopard snarled up at the old man in front of him, but the panther hadn't moved an inch, and his old aged had somehow receded from his face.

"Old man?" The black panther roared and folded his arms behind his back. Seeing this made Tai-Lung's fur stand on end and forced his tail to curl around one of his legs. The hidden force behind the atrophied muscles of this black panther was enough to shatter whole houses and Tai-Lung didn't want to be hit in the face by such a fist. So he gulped and began an '_about-face'_ of his current tactics.

"I... meant, Tai-Shen... my apologies Tai-Shen." Tai-Lung bowed his head slightly.

"... What were you trying to do, Tai-Lung? Request answers, or**demand** them?" The elder responded in a deep tone that didn't sound aged in the least.

"I..." Tai-Lung coughed once more, and slowly began to stand. "I apologize... I lost my temper, I meant to request an answer, Tai-Shen."

The black panther wasn't smiling, but he removed his paws from behind his back and placed them at his sides. This was a sign that things were going in the right direction for Tai-Lung and he relaxed.

"Try to refrain from attacking me Tai-Lung... I tend to lose my age whenever I experience pain... or anger." The black panther, Tai-Shen, confessed and he turned his back on the snow leopard to find the chair he was sitting in a moment ago and returned his rear to the seat.

"I'll commit to memory, Master." Tai-Lung bowed.

"Don't call me, Master." Tai-Shen quickly replied, before Tai-Lung could even fully bow, which almost threw Tai-Lung's back out at how quickly he stopped bowing.

"I-uh... sorry." Tai-Lung sighed. "Well can you at least tell me about my face...?"

"Are you so vain, that your scars break your spirit? Warriors aren't meant to be beautiful people. We're bloody creatures... ravenous combatants, not illustrious lovers." Tai-Shen was partially snarling.

"No no... Nothing like that but... I thought I would have the same face I remembered seeing..." Tai-Lung cut himself off.

"What? The same face you remember seeing twenty-one years ago?" Tai-Shen sighed deeply. "Have you forgotten how long you were trapped here in this very prison? With no such liberties as I grant, here and now?"

"No... I haven't forgotten." Tai-Lung sighed. "But... I hadn't looked at myself in twenty-one years... … I... had no idea that my expression had changed so much from what it used to be."

"What do you mean?" Tai-Shen asked, now sounding genuinely concerned.

"...Over twenty year ago... I remember, I remember writing letters to my father, and reading scrolls of detailed kung-fu abilities and techniques... I was merely an eight year old kitten and I was happier than an ant, at a deserted banquet. I remember this... shimmer, in my eyes. This glow I used to have about me... It was... … it was..."

"Innocence." Tai-Shen interrupted, standing up again from his chair.

"Innocence...?" Tai-Lung repeated, laughing as the word escaped his mouth almost leaving a tingle at the end of his tongue. "I don't know if I deserve to use that word."

"Anyone over the age of 12 can usually say they don't deserve to use the word s... Tai-Lung." Tai-Shen choked, laughing at himself for a moment. "But no... that shimmer in your eyes, the pain in your face... The scars on your lip, cheek, chin and neck... It's called age... Fatigue... Experience... You've been living, and anyone whom has to embrace their own destiny loses their innocence."

"..." Tai-Lung was quiet for a while, thinking about what Tai-Shen was telling him, but it didn't completely click just yet. For all his life, all Tai-Lung knew about was kung-fu... He wasn't even completely trained in First Aid like Tai-Shen had earlier accused. He knew how to set a broken bone, apply a bandage, disinfect a wound and break a face with nearly every part of his body, but the world in itself he wasn't too educated in, and he surely didn't know enough Japanese to engage in conversation with Tai-Shen or even ask for the bathroom... But his innocence had to be intact somewhere. The pain he felt of being denied the Dragon Scroll and the Title of Dragon Warrior could have been painful enough to strip him of his innocence could it?

Or perhaps was it being imprisoned for twenty years... Could solitary torture with your own neighbor being a ballista bolt for twenty years be enough to flay one of their innocence... perhaps.

"I know what did it..." Tai-Lung began to laugh like a vulture enjoying an unguarded nest of eggs. "I know who took my innocence... It was the Dragon Warrior. He did this to me... These scars, the humiliation, he took my title, he attempted to take my life... He... he..."

Tai-Shen placed a paw on Tai-Lung's shoulder, and began shaking his head.

"What?" Tai-Lung asked, feeling a bit hurt that Tai-Shen wouldn't allow him to embrace his revenge. "Isn't that why you taught me how to make sock-puppets from ice? So I can break that pandas face without leaving a murder weapon? Ice melts, old man."

"No you fool." Tai-Shen began laughing, "Just don't ever say another man _took_ your innocence in my presence ever again... Or in anyone else's presence … or Ear shot. Alright?"

Tai-Lung was quiet for a while, but shrugged his shoulders. "...Why?" He didn't get it.

It was then Tai-Shen's turn to be stunned and silent, but he quickly began to chuckle once again. "Waaaaiiit, I remember now. You _haven't_ lost your innocence yet."

"What...?" Tai-Lung snarled, "Not just a moment ago, you said I HAD lost it, now you're saying I haven't?"

"Well … technically, no." Tai-Shen shook his head and sighed, trying to suppress his selfish laughter. "Technically you haven't..."

"What are you talking about old man! Quit jerking me around!"

"Well answer me this s... Tai-Lung." The panther paused to gain his breath. "Who was your first girlfriend?"

Tai-Lung went to open his mouth but he couldn't think of who his first girlfriend was... because he never had one, as a matter of fact he was still a virgin, he'd never actually even been kissed on the lips by another woman before. All his life was kung-fu, and any girls that wanted to play with him whenever he was taken to the Valley with Shifu... well, Shifu didn't approve of young girls around his _son, _especially not when Tai-Lung began asking adult questions when he was merely a teenager_. _With Tai-Lung realizing that he had still been celibate for almost his entire life revealed what Tai-Shen was chuckling about.

"HEY!" The snow leopard roared, which set off another laughing fit from the old man, who begun to rapidly get older and older.

"Forgive me, Tai-Lung." The black panther laughed and quickly began coughing due to his age.

"Look you disgusting perverted hermit. I don't need you pestering me on my love life... I … I was with plenty of women before I was arrested. As a matter of fact, all those hot nights with women is part of the reason I was sent here in the first place, alone! Because I couldn't be trusted around people."

Tai-Shen had to wipe a tear from his wrinkled brow as he set his eyes back on a blushing, yet irritated, Tai-Lung. "So are you telling me, you had to be handcuffed in the center of a detachable pit specifically because you weren't trusted to _not,_ lose your mind and explode in a flurry of anger and man sex in the middle of an all male prison devoted to _you?_"

Tai-Lung's right eye twitched wildly for a moment. "Is... that what I made it sound like?"

"That's specifically what you made it sound like... But I know what you meant, and I also know you're a big liar when you're embarrassed or scared."

Tai-Lung spat and fanned his arms in the air. "Can we quit talking about my life? What about YOUR life? How many times were YOU with women huh?"

Tai-Shen again fell silent as Tai-Lung turned the bullet back towards him, but it didn't take long for Tai-Shen to produce an answer. "Only once... Well, only once that actually mattered."

"What are you saying, Shen?" The snow leopard asked, stepping up to Tai-Shen as he had a seat once more.

"I'm saying that I was only with one woman in my short life... She was a miraculious woman... We rescued each other from death and fell in love."

"So?" Tai-Lung grunted folding his arms over his scarred chest. "What's that got to do with anything?"

"...Well." Tai-Shen chuckled. "Me and my wife were only together for a year, and we had five children in that short period."

"So?" Tai-Lung repeated himself, still not impressed with the story of his savior's life.

"...?" Tai-Shen rose a brow, a bit confused by Tai-Lung's lack of expression but he quickly put together why the man had no emotion behind his eyes, or a thought in his head. "Ok, let me explain something to you about love, sex and pregnancy..."

"God... Sexual Education from a man old enough to be my father?" Tai-Lung groaned out loud. "Just promise me you won't use flash cards and we can get back to my chi training alright? I'm still trying to etch away the memories of you wiping my butt for me."

.

.

.

.

.

.

_Day 7 : Noon_

_China – Valley of Peace Blast Tunnel_

_._

_._

It had been four days since the Furious Five and the Dragon Warrior had set out on their mission to fix the wall bordering the outermost ring of the Valley of Peace and fill the tunnel caused from the Wuxi Fingerhold's destructive force, with the reward at the end of their toil being the ability to use their inner chi spirits. It was a great prize with an equally great task ahead of them. Fixing the broken wall went off without a hitch for the six and the wall was repaired in only twenty hours, and was completely restored to it's former glory the very next day, as if it had never been caved in by shrapnel. However, the six of them have collectively been in and out of the tunnel under the Valley for three days and hadn't so much as formed a dirt mound in the dark depths that managed to actually stand and deliver. The will and enthusiasm that was collectively high among the group was now at an all time low because the six of them couldn't figure how to keep a hole, that had been growing around itself for eight months, from fill itself in _without_ caving it in. Forcing the tunnel to collapse on itself would damage the buildings and structures above it and would simply defeat the entire point of restoring the valley in the first place. Even Crane was questioning why they were so hasty to restore the homes destroyed instead of first dealing with the threat of a sinkhole in the shape of a river running through the urban homestead.

Although all the arguing, swearing and fighting had been bled out of the six over the grueling toil of the last few rancid days of sitting in a black hole, with no clear idea of how to complete their task and be rewarded with a whole new plateau of knowledge and power.

"Wow... This is... impossible." Viper half lamented. "How does Shifu expect us to fix this entire tunnel?"

"I'm not entirely... sure." Mantis coughed, "But what I want to know … is what is the smell we're smelling?"

Crane shook his beak, "It's a terrible stench. I hope this tunnel isn't going under the graveyard."

"I think it's manure we're smelling, it smells like manure." Monkey half laughed, half coughed as more dirt fell on his hand.

"It smells like something's rotten guys." Po wheezed. "This is awful. My dad once had a bowl of meat lying on the third bottom shelf of the kitchen, and he had forgotten about it over a hot summer weekend, and this tunnel smells almost exactly like the kitchen did after three days."

Tigress was suffering from her headache again, but she was present and able to add to the complaining just like everyone else. "Um... Dragon Warrior... You are aware that there are _two_ days in a weekend correct?"

"Wha?" Po paused.

"Saturday... and Sunday... The Weekend." Tigress shook her head while holding the only torch the group was given in order to fulfill their obligation.

"I meant _Three-Day Weekend._" Po completely explained, "but none the less this cave stinks like dead meat, and it smells completely awful."

"Makes sense..." Tigress grunted, stroking her head with her free paw.

Crane sighed and leaned in towards Viper so that she could fan him with the paper fan that she was given. "What I desperately want to know is how Shifu expects us to fill this tunnel without proper tools... He gave each of us a virtually worthless item for this mission. I got a canteen of water, that won't support the six of us for more than one hour." Crane complained as he fanned at the leather pouch in question that was hanging around his neck.

"I agree," Viper hissed in a mix of confusion and distress. "All I have is a paper fan."

Tigress lightly fanned her lit torch. "I have the only light source."

Mantis roared from his place in the darkness of the tunnel. "I – have – a – HOE!"

"I... thought that was a shovel?" Po called out, trying to find the moving shovel in the darkness. "Well Master Shifu gave me a bucket... I don't know what I'm going to do, build a dirt castle?"

Monkey shook his head, "It's very cruel and unusual training, all Shifu gave me was these..."

"These what?" Po asked.

"These balls." Monkey replied without taking the chance to truly enjoy his own crude joke, but instead he held out two orbs made out of flint.

"Yeah... That wont help us." Po sighed. "Guys, you think we should just go tell Shifu that we can't do it?"

"What?" Tigress stood up in protest. "Why should we do that? Shifu will with hold our training for our new abilities."

Po held up his bucket in defense, "Well just hear me out Tigress. Perhaps all this useless crap is supposed to make us think about something specific."

Crane tilted his head, "I'm not seeing eye to eye with you dragon warrior... How ever is a bucket, a bag of water, flint rocks, a shovel-"

"A hoe!" Mantis shouted from his spot of the cave where he was furiously trying to cut into roots.

Crane sighed, "A _hoe... _a torch and a fan are supposed to aide us in mending a what looks like a mine shaft. How could these mediocre tools fix this problem?"

"Perhaps they don't have to." Po expressed, setting his bucket on the ground in the dirt.

"I don't understand, Po." Crane look down at the bucket at his feet, very puzzled. "What are you getting at?"

"What I mean is... What if we put all these things together? Maybe they'll form a giant... fighting... robotic toy to fill the hole for us."

Crane's beak turned back up towards Po's face, almost threatening to poke his eyes out. "That's not funny, Dragon Warrior."

Tigress smirked, "I thought it was funny."

"Really?" Po said with a smile.

"I think it's funny that you think Shifu would give us tools that would help us _seal_, the hole. Actually... I think these tools are specifically to keep us alive if we screw up, not to shut down this shaft."

Viper, being more concerned about everyone's safety, slithered towards Tigress. "Do you really think so?" She asked, half batting her eye lids to get a better view of Tigress through the partial light of the worn torch and it's dim light.

"Well think of it this way," Tigress began to explain. "If this cave were to somehow shut down on us, and cave in on one end... Mantis' hoe-"

"HOE!" Mantis roared, cutting off Tigress, which provoked a small chuckle from Monkey as he approached to join Crane and Viper in listening to their leader.

"Yes, Mantis' tool is supposed to probably help us either tear through the blockage, or cut through the dirt above us to get to air and solid ground.

"Ah... That's what this is for..." Mantis said from the darkness and began swinging madly as something entirely different than what he was swinging at before. "Hya!"

"Well what about my water?" Crane asked, holding up his bag with a wing.

"I'm not sure, the water won't keep all of us hydrated for more than an hour like you put it... Perhaps we're supposed to use it to keep cool."

Viper stood up on her end, "Well my fan it supposed to help keep cool. It's a paper fan after all."

"Actually..." Tigress held her torch slightly closer to Viper's paper fan, revealing multiples scattered lines of color all over it. "I think it's also a map, but we can't really use it because none of us have a proper sense of direction when we're underground."

"So it's just a paper fan?" Monkey asked, hold up his balls. "And these are just flint rock right?"

"Yeah. I guess." Tigress responded, "And Po, I think you bucket is a bucket, and my torch is a torch. They're to keep us alive."

"Well why would Shifu deliberately send us into a hole, thinking that we'd never make it out alive?" Viper asked Tigress again, while fanning herself off.

"I'm not entirely sure... perhaps the Dragon Warrior actually _is_ right. What if Shifu really _did_ send us down here, just so we could tell him we can't do it."

"Maybe that's his idea of good teaching. He does torture us, to teach us after all." Crane laughed lightly, which provoked laughter from everyone else.

"So what do you think Tigress?" Crane spoke, placing his neck in the reach of Viper's fan to cool off. "Think we should tell Shifu we concede and see what he says?"

All eyes were now on Tigress who was sweating, and nervous of what Shifu would have to say to the group, but she decided it would be better to ask Shifu's right hand...

"Well Po," Tigress smiled towards the Dragon Warrior, which set all eyes on him instead. "What do you think? Want to turn ourselves in?"

Po nodded with a warm noodle smile. "I don't think he'll get mad at us, he'll probably just laugh because it took us so long to tell him that we can't figure it out."

_._

_._

_Day 7 : Night_

_China – The Jade Palace_

_._

_._

Shifu was in a fit of intense laughter, sitting with his legs folded in front of his six loyal, dirt clotted students. "Haha! I can't believe it took you so long to tell me that you can't figure it out!"

His jubilation wasn't shared amongst the six warriors, who were tired, confused, frustrated, exhausted, dehydrated and completely embarrassed.

"So tell me. Did you at least attempt to use the tools I gave you to fill the hole?" Shifu had to wipe his face to prevent the stream of joyful tears from staining the collar of his kimono.

"Po put the bucket on his head-" One of the Five confessed.

"I put the bucket on my head-" Po admitted with a wide smile.

"Po put that bucket on his head." Stated Master Tigress as she stood for the group, "But Master... these tools were completely worthless to us."

"Those tools weren't meant to fill the hole, they were merely apparatuses in place that would aide in your survival. I would be heart broken if something would have happened to the six of you." Master Shifu's last statement was presented as though he was intentionally setting up the six for disaster.

"So … Master..." Po stood up to approach Tigress, "Why _did_ you make us go into that stinky hole without the proper protection?"

Mantis snickered silently behind Po's girth as Master Shifu attempted to see the positive in Po's ludicrous statement. "Ah..." He shook his head, coming to his senses and freeing his mind from the gutter.

"The tunnel was supposed to make the six of you realize that there are some things in our world that you cannot completely understand..." Shifu turned his back to his six students as he threw his arms into the air, stretching them out wide like he was trying to hug an invisible tree. Although as he did, the air around Shifu's frame began to change color... dramatically.

The Dragon Warrior and Master Tigress took a firm step away from their Master as his chi swirled visibly around his short stature. Shifu's body was glowing with a clear outline and a lightly transparent mist. His chi was teal, and brilliant.

"Whoa!" Po clapped his hands, his muscles were trembling and his heart was racing. This was amazing, simply astounding to him. Tigress actually decided to take another step away and stand behind the Dragon Warrior but Po was far too excited to feel any fear from Shifu's demonstration. "What are you doing Master Shifu?" He innocently spoke to his brightly glowing Master.

"This..." Shifu whispered through his teeth. "This is the Mastery of one's self."

"Is this the meaning of being a Kung Fu Master?" Asked a hiding Tigress. She began to lightly escape the shadow of the Dragon Warrior so she could have a look at Shifu but lesser demonstrations of skill and power scared Tigress a lot more than this. For her, Shifu was always a new discovery, and even though this was something exciting and new, it was just as scary.

Although Shifu wasn't going to harm anyone. His arms were still stretched out before him even as his little feet began to depart from the wooden floor everyone was sitting upon.

"Whaaa?" Monkey gasped, watching the red panda begin to float before everyone's eyes.

"Oh my god, is Master Shifu flying?" Viper's mouth was hanging agape with shock, thankfully Crane was there to help close her mouth for her. With a helpful feather, Crane leaned to one side to shut Viper's open trap before Shifu could turn around and amaze his audience even further.

"This isn't flying... This is _Genshuku..._ This is _Force..._ It is my chi." The Grand Master answered all the unanswered questions with the single statement. "At your highest peak. You will have the power to do almost anything you can imagine."

"C-can I punch through walls? C-can I do a quadruple back-flip? What about see through girls clothes?" The Dragon Warrior began to excitedly rattle off not realizing what was coming out of his mouth at the speed of sound, but everyone else did.

"..." Shifu was fell silent as he allowed the large Panda's words to sink into his own excited head, as well as everyone else in the room, especially Tigress.

The Dragon Warrior glanced behind his back at the fuming orange feline and bowed to apologize. "Come on... you can't tell me you've never wanted to fly. Look at Shifu. He's flying!"

"It's not flying..." Shifu interrupted the larger panda, while folding his legs together to meditate so he could patiently await for his turn to speak... because it wasn't Shifu's turn to speak, it was Tigress' turn to scream.

"No, I can't say I've never wanted to fly. But look at Crane!" Tigress half scowled. "Crane CAN fly, and I accept that as fact. Look at Monkey, he's amazingly acrobatic and can hang upside down with his own tail... I WISH I could do such things like that. But none of us here can see through -_anyone's-_ clothes... AND for good reason!" Tigress almost pounced on Po, the only reason she hadn't was simply because she knew he wouldn't mind it.

"Because we wouldn't leave the house." Viper mildly stated.

"Nope." Monkey jumped in, "Because I wouldn't need to think up weird ways to make the village women come out their clothes."

Shifu coughed loudly, which forced Mantis to jump in and save Monkey from being shouted at. "What he means is that we uh... help the ladies... from the village... whenever..."

"Whenever what?" Viper hissed at her brothers-in-arms. "Whenever they're not married?"

The Dragon Warrior scratched the back of his head, "You guys go after married women?"

"This isn't about them, it's about you pervert!" Tigress shoved Po once with her strong arms and advanced on him, forcing Po to step back towards the floating, glowing Shifu.

"I'm not a pervert! It was just an innocent question!"

"Yeah, about as innocent as a lonely tanuki with massage oil..." Tigress folded her arms, huffing and glaring at the Dragon Warrior.

"Uh..." Crane coughed, "Tigress... why _are_ you so interested in Po's business anyway? I thought you could care less of the Dragon Warrior's daily antics?"

Tigress' cheeks suddenly ignited for a moment, before she straightened up and turned her attention to Shifu, effectively redirecting attention away from herself. Master Tigress pushed past Po, avoiding Crane's question and stepped towards her floating Master.

"What must we do to unlock our Chi, so we can be strong like you?"

"Oh, is it my turn to speak? I'm flattered..." Shifu shook his head from side to side, thinking his turn to talk would never come. "Now listen well my students, what you must do to unlock your chi, is both difficult... and simple."

Crane and Viper sat forward, "What is it Master?" They spoke in unison.

"Yeah. What do we have to do?" Monkey and Mantis then chimed in after the first two.

"What's the difficult part of the challenge Master?" Master Tigress wasn't too sure about whatever Shifu had in store for them.

"Is it like my challenge at the Li-Da Academy in Sun-Lo?" Crane asked, getting slightly impatient.

"Oh oh oh!" Po turned to Crane, "You mean when you had to fight through the dangerous wooden training course to get to the flag? Oh that was so awesome!"

"...How did you even know about that?" Master Crane was a bit shocked that Po knew such exact details about his history. He was famous, but Crane didn't think his tale had touched so many people especially not in the Valley of Peace.

"You shouldn't be so surprised Master Crane," Shifu began to lower himself from levitation, however the glowing aura that surrounded him never faded. "The Dragon Warrior may look simple at first-"

"Hey..." Po whimpered a bit hurt.

"Toughen Up... Like I was saying, the Dragon Warrior may _look_ simple. But he is an astonishing warrior. He defeated Tai-Lung after all, surely you're not amazed that he's read a book or two about your life." The red panda explained. Once he hit the ground his stood up and dusted off his kimono, and his six students all lined up, with Tigress positioning herself as far away from Po as she could... which, oddly enough, was on the other side of the room instead of the end of the line.

"Is there a problem, Tigress?" Shifu turned to the indifferent feline, who slowly returned to the group with her eyes partially to the floor.

"Well then... it's time for me to teach you six to unlock your chi... The process may be difficult and it may be taxing to your health... But the goal you must achieve is a simple one..."

"...?" The six all stood silently in front of Shifu, awaiting what he had to say next.

"All you must do... _Is Wake Up_..." He finished, and flipped one arm into the air and snapped his fingers.

"What?" Po managed to mutter, before blacking out.

"I don't... understan-" Viper fell forward.

"Wake up.. Wh-" Crane fell over onto Monkey.

"But I'm already aw..." Monkey fell backwards, and Mantis fell out onto the Golden Langur.

Tigress could feel her body twisting and burning, as if her blood was being set on fire. Her mind was foggy, her vision began to blur rapidly. She fell to her knees, being the last one awake and groaned out in fear and confusion. "M-master... what is this... wh-what have you done to us?" Her last words were almost too silent to hear as she fell forward, unconscious.

Shifu watched his students black out one by one with a strange smile on his face. It wasn't joy... nor was it accomplishment. He was only slightly happy that he was finally teaching the six about their true powers, but he was afraid of what could happen if any of them didn't wake up. The six would be asleep, battling their own mind in order to unlock it's true potential. The individual trails they would face would vary from person to person... It could be a feat of brilliance, or a test of strength. Perhaps even a battle of will or bravery, but it was whatever the mind's eye sees...

"Please, take care my young ones..." Shifu whispered as he opened his palm to levitate the floor he, and the unconscious Kung-Fu Masters were lying. "Because when you wake up, the _real_ challenge will begin."

"AH!" The Dragon Warrior suddenly shouted as he sat up, forcing Shifu to almost jump out of his skin. The floor he had captured in his chi, fell rapidly and rolled everyone like small dice.

"W-What? HOW?" Shifu's heart was racing faster than a starving hyena chasing a marinated duck.

"What?" Po rubbed his eyes with his fat paws. "What's going on Shifu? Why did you tell us to wake up."

"What's going on?" Shifu shook his head, "You're already awake! How can this be?"

"I fell asleep?" The Dragon Warrior glanced around to see the Furious Five asleep and strewn out like they were knocked out after a heavy night of binge drinking. "What happened? To them?"

"They're still asleep! Why aren't you! Did you already complete your trial?"

"My trial? I... uh, Yes."

"How is that possible..." Shifu groaned and held his head with both paws, but after a very short moment... He exhaled and straightened himself up. "What _was_ your trial anyway? I heard it's different from person to person..."

"I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours." Po asked while standing up and patting himself off."

"Fair enough." Shifu coughed, "I... had to face my Grandfather for one last time..."

"Your Grandfather...? Was it bad?"

"He was a strict... Very strict, dangerous man... However my trial was to overcome my fear of him... And once I did..."

"You were able to use your powers for awesomeness!" Po held up a fist in victory, which very quickly lit on fire. "AH!"

"GAH!" Shifu jumped away from Po's fist that was engulfed in a teal aura. It was the same color as Shifu's essence, but the frequency of the flames surrounding Po's hand weren't nearly as steady when they were being channeled through Shifu.

"Whoaaaaa... Awesome. Awesome, totally awesome." The Dragon Warrior laughed, watching the black fur on his paw shift and ebb like a rice field during a summer breeze. The power glowing on the end of his paw was unlike any that he ever dreamed of. Even his Kung Fu dreams weren't this awesome, or painful... "Hey Master, it's starting to hurt my hand, is there anyway to turn this off?"

"It's Force, Panda... _YOUR Force_ to be exact... I can't tell you how to use it... How did you turn it on?" Shifu took another step back, not wanting to get involved with chi that was completely wild and untamed.

"Uh..." Po began to think to himself, while his hand was starting to broil. "Actually... I was thinking of the color pink for some reason, and then my hand l-" Before he could finish his sentence, the turquoise flame that had swallowed almost all of the Dragon Warrior's arm went out.

Po puckered his lips forward slightly and nodded his head in satisfaction. "Ok cool, totally cool."

"It is not _cool,_ Dragon Warrior... Chi is powerful and Dangerous! But... you did wake up rather swiftly so... I shouldn't be worried... You're an amazing warrior."

"Thanks, Shifu."

"So..." Shifu extended his hand to levitate the floor again where the Furious Five had become a fur-pile. "Tell me, what was _your_ trial. What did you have to do to wake up."

Po, at first, didn't hear Shifu's question, he was too busy fawning over his burned hand. The fur on his right paw and arm had already begun turning slightly blacker than it already was. But feeling Shifu's fist suddenly bash it's way into Po's gut, got his attention back... and swiftly.

"Ah! What, what? What did I do?" Po gasped.

"I asked what was asking what you had to do in order to wake up, because as you see..." Shifu gestured towards the five masters asleep in front of him. "They are still sleeping, which means they're still fighting to unlock their true potential. So what was it?"

"My dream? I had to eat through the Great Wall." Po pronounced proudly.

"I'm … not that surprised you did it so swiftly, Dragon Warrior. I'm more shocked at the concept... Your mind is a strange strange place..." Shifu laughed but continued with his work.

"Thanks... I think. So how long will they stay unconscious like that Master?"

"Anywhere from a few hours... to... I don't know. Oogway told me this form of unlocking usually takes between six to nine days."

"Sixty-Nine Days?" The Dragon Warrior gasped, making Shifu come to a complete stop as he began to gather up the indisposed Masters.

"No – Po. Six – TO – Nine – Days..." Shifu repeated slowly which kept Po fairly quiet all the way to the student dormitories where the each of the five Masters were placed in their rooms.

"So... Master Shifu, what happens if they don't wake up in time?"

"They could die." Shifu plainly responded. Po stood still in the hallway by himself. Shifu aided all his students to bed and slowly closed the doors.

"Fear not, Dragon Warrior. I've never heard of anyone dying from this exercise, however it is possible... they _are_ sleeping, and they will need to eat and drink eventually. Because the body will die if it runs out of nutrients to sustain itself... You know that."

"I know Master..." Po sighed, "But an hour has already passed, they should be up by now... Right?"

"Give it a few days Dragon Warrior, the Furious Five will be reunited then... But if you're so worried, you can check on them at anytime. Nothing you do will wake them however, so don't try. Or you'll be wasting your time."

"Um ok... but where are you going Master?" Po took his first step after 15 minutes of being stationary after Shifu had turned the corner to leave the student wing of the Palace.

"Me?" Shifu responded, "I'm going to meditate and have some tea, I need to try and comprehend how remarkable of a warrior you are... You don't look the part, but you _are_ the Dragon Warrior."

The pandas smiled at each other for a moment, but not after long Shifu bowed his head and exited the building, leaving Po to fend for himself. He was worried, very worried about everyone, but Shifu's lack of concern made him feel a bit better. If Shifu wasn't sweating buckets, that meant there wasn't much danger... But it would be nice to see everyone awake instead of fighting with their own mind and dreams. Po decided to check on everyone individually. Mantis and Monkey were sleeping soundly, which was a good thing because Po was worried about all of them, but seeing smiles on their faces was... probably, a good thing. He slightly pulled the door to Crane's room, but Crane wasn't looking so good... He was shaking his head from side to side. Muttering and groaning something nonsensical that couldn't be understood by anyone who _wasn't_ sleeping, and occasionally batting his feet at the air.

It was probably another trial at the Li-Da academy or perhaps something more taxing, like a battle with Tai-Lung, or trying to fight with his childhood friend Mei-Ling. Po wasn't sure but he was hoping for the best for the Kung Fu Master of flight and White Crane Style. After Crane, Po checked in on Viper who was breathing heavily and snapping at the air with her fangs fully extended. The Dragon Warrior didn't look in for very long, because Viper was a very light sleeper and reacted to light with as much sensitivity as flowers at sunrise. When her head rotated in Po's direction and her fangs dripped with either saliva or venom, Po knew it was the perfect time to leave and never return until Viper was awake.

That lead his trip finally to Tigress' room. At first, Po was hesitant about entering, especially seeing how violent Viper behaves in her sleep but... he had to check. It was a part of his design, chivalry wasn't dead in Po's mind so he slowly approached, and pulled open Tigress' door. There she was, lying on her bed but she wasn't a sleeping beauty... She was apparently in trouble. Like Viper, Tigress was breathing heavily, and like Crane her muscles were twitching and she was speaking nonsense. Po entered Tigress' room and pulled the door shut so he could quickly get to Tigress' side.

Without warning, Tigress' claws extended from her paws and cut into her bed where she let out a low growl.

"Gah!" Po took a step back. "Tigress... hang in there, you'll be ok."

"Hot..." Tigress gasped, with her paws still deep into her bedroom. "So... hot..."

"What?" Po shook his head, "What's wrong, are you ok?"

"Burning... hot..." Tigress repeated, but she wasn't conscious at all... just talking madness through her violent dream.

Po wanted to desperately help and he stood up to get a fan to cool her off, but Tigress' extended claws turned from the bed to herself. Tigress growled and ran her claws along her red silk shirt and began gasping for air like she was dehydrated.

"You must be burning up." Po watched as Tigress shook her head from side to side and started snapping her fangs like a rapid dog. But he noticed that she was also sweating, a lot... "Yeah, you're on fire. Here let me help."

The Dragon Warrior stepped forward to Tigress' bedroom as her fighting and shaking came to a sudden pause. But she was still breathing very heavily, and sweat was visible on nearly every one of her exposed furs. Po's paws were trembling but he did want to help Tigress somehow...

"Ok... I'll... I'll unbutton... her shirt... then... I'll leave. I promise I'll leave..." The Dragon Warrior muttered, trying to convince himself that he wasn't being a pervert and that all he wanted to do was help his friend as best he could... But he couldn't deny the fact the Tigress was beautiful. He couldn't help feeling butterflies in his stomach thinking about seeing her exposed chest, but he _was_ a man, and being nervous wasn't a trait of the Dragon Warrior... he had to help, then leave as quickly as possible.

Taking a deep breathe, Po leaned forward to grab the straps of Tigress' red silken shirt so he could undo her top, so she could cool off a little... It would help, it should help. As one strand came undone, Po felt time slowing down... The fur on her chest and stomach was white, just like he imagined. It looked soft... softer than a baby's fur. Another strap came undone, revealing more of Tigress' warm belly and her belly button. Po's mouth was dry as his hands expertly slid across her stomach to the next strap, and the one after that and the one after that... The Dragon Warrior had no idea how long he'd been crouching next to Tigress but he'd done what he wanted to do and unbuttoned Tigress' shirt. Her fur chest was partially exposed but he could see all of her belly... down to a black design that began at her thigh and vanished under her pants... His curiosity was peaked... What was the design he was seeing... Was it a tattoo? An emblem? Was Tigress associated with some secret organization that kept their mark on their thighs?

The Dragon Warrior turned his eyes to look up at Tigress' face, she wasn't sweating anymore, nor was she breathing heavy. Her chest had stopped it's constant motion of heaving and exhaling so she was probably at a calmer state of dream battling, and the Dragon Warrior had managed to at least unbutton her top without being slashed, bitten or shouted at so far. So he figured that Shifu was right in saying that no matter what happens... They what happens, none of the Masters would wake up before they were completed with their trial.

"Alright... then... I won't... look for long, just a quick peak..." Po swallowed hard as he gently seized the waistband of Tigress' black pants and very gently began to slide them down her hips, slowly... cautiously... gradually revealing the black mark that sat on Tigress' thigh.

"What could it be..." Po whispered to himself, as more and more of the tattoo began to show... It looked like some symbol etched in the center of a twisting black circle... Or that's as much as Po could see with the tattoo being only revealed by a fourth... As he tugged slightly harder on Tigress' pants, the tattoo got slightly clearer to him... It was a black circle, and there was a symbol inside of it. But he was only able to see fifty percent of the decal before he felt a solid fist ram into his head, hitting him squarely between the eyes.

The Dragon Warrior's vision was hazy, but he knew that his time was up...

"What... in the _hell_ did you think you were doing, Po?" Tigress sat up from her bedroll snarling, but she didn't close her shirt, accidentally giving the downed panda a peek at her perky breasts. "Well, are you going to answer me, or am I going to have to beat it out of you?"

"Y-your...your..." Po stammered, holding one paw over the bruise that developed on his head and pointing the other at her open shirt that revealed everything that a young panda would fantasize about.

Tigress snarled but looked down, not realizing what he was talking about at first. But seeing her own chest exposed to the Dragon Warrior set her spirit on fire... Literally.

"Oh you dirty PERVERT!" Tigress roared out loud and the entire room lit. The awoken Master's entire frame lit on fire from the glowing essence of her fire chi.

"Tigress!" Po stammered pointing a guilty and nervous finger, "Your... Your chi... it's..."

"_Gouka Chi_..." Tigress growled like she was going to dissect the large panda on the spot. "It's my Fire Chi... and it's going to purge your mind of what you just saw... _**Dragon Warrior**_!"

_._

_._

_._

_Day 7 : Midnight_

_China – The Jade Palace_

_._

_._

_._

Shifu was sitting by the Sacred Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom, having the tea he was talking about earlier. Things were going fine until his ears were turned around by a sudden mighty explosion. Turning around, he noticed that a wing of the Jade Palace had been set on fire, and he could overhear Po's shouting and Tigress roaring, probably in hot pursuit of him.

"Well... Tigress _and_ Po are awake in under two hours... That's... good to hear?" Shifu tipped his tea cup back towards his lips to consume the last of his glass and sighed.

"And they've set my home on fire... I'm getting too old for this."

* * *

_Aisu_ – Ice

_Toushousha – _FrostBite

_Genshuku – _Gravity

_Gouka – _'Hell Fire'


	3. Chapter 3

.

.

**Tetsu**

**.**

**III**

**.**

**.**

_Day 8 : Morning_

_Mongolia – Chorh Gom Prison_

_._

_._

Tai-Lung awoke slowly with a loud yawn and a long stretch. His voice echoed off the battle worn walls of his frozen home, which once used to be his frozen tomb. The walls were still scarred from the blast that he'd set off to escape, and even more so from the blast set off by Tai-Shen when he re-entered... Chorh Gom Prison's door had been reconstructed... A one hundred feet door reconstructed for the soul purpose of keeping out vagrants and travelers who dared to wander into sacred territory, and it had been felled twice. Once by a snow leopard, with a mission of vengeance, and the second time by a black panther with a heart as cold as the very ice and snow that hid and preserved the corpses of the fallen rhino's that guarded the prison.

It was strange to call such an empty, dark and hateful place home... But there was no other place in China that Tai-Lung could go without being attacked. He was a vigilante, a criminal... a true villian. He once used to be a hero, the very face of Kung Fu, the embodiment of justice and virtue... and... in the matter of only twenty four hours, he managed to throw all his glory and fame down a hole, and cremate it... With a deep sigh, Tai-Lung began to look back onto his past and what had happened... He always knew of a force that was driving him to achieve, a force that was fueling his brain, rejuvinating his muscles, kick starting each of his actions with an extra boost of fury and power. It was that super charged essence of brilliance that enabled him to achieve such heights that he did as a kid... But the day he was deined his right, he couldn't feel anything in his heart other than depression... denial... failure... and then rage.

Tai-Lung's paws formed into fists as he tugged onto the make shift blanket he was given. It did little to shield him from the cold of Chorh Gom but there wasn't a temperature cold enough to chill Tai-Lung's bones. Tossing aside the blanket, the snow leopard pulled himself away from the pile of dirty pillows that Tai-Shen had found months ago and began his morning routine of stretching and checking that no parts of his body had fallen to _toushousha. _

"You're up early, my son..." Tai-Shen's voice suddenly flooded Tai-Lung's ears as he began stretching. His spine cracked once, twice, then a third time before he turned around to greet his Master who was approaching with a leather pouch in hand.

"Yes I am, good morning Master." Tai-Lung bowed after he turned to Tai-Shen, but he didn't bow very far for his eyes were mostly focused onto the bag in the hands of the black panther. "May I ask what that is, Master?"

"It's for you." Tai-Shen responded, extending an arm to bestow his gift onto his jaded student. "Take it. It's a gift, from... Master to Student."

Tai-Lung smiled and thanked his Master as he took the pouch with another bow of respect, and hastily began untying the leather strap that held the parcel shut. Like a small child, Tai-Lung didn't hesitate to even touch the bag to guess what he might have been getting, instead of dove his large chi-scarred paw into the bag to dive into what felt like coarse sand.

"What...?" Tai-Lung pulled his hand back with only a quarter as much enthusiam as he did sticking his hand into the bag to reveal his paw had chaged colors from it's usual snow leopard grey ... to a black panther... _black._

"Um... I don't get it old man. What is this you've given me? Ashes?" Tai-Lung was stunned, unable to wrap his brain around the bag. "Or... if if... if this is some type of bizzare training you're as wacked as Shifu, and I haven't even had my breakfast yet so-"

"Calm down, my son." Tai-Shen interrupted the snow leopard before his fury could grow to brightly. "It's a disguise. For you."

"A disguise?" Tai-Lung shook his head again, "I don't understand it... Are you expecting company later this afternoon or something? Because if it's a woman I'll clean the entire damn prison."

Tai-Shen smiled and shook his head, "No, no. Nothing like that. I've... been reading your mind."

"What!" Tai-Lung snarled. "How! When?"

"Well for one... You talk in your sleep." Tai-Shen extended one of his six available fingers into the air, clearly not counting his own thumbs. "Two," he extended another finger. "You're like a broken record... Whenever you have the time, you usually stare into the ceiling. Up at the claw marks you left on your escape... You've been thinking about the Valley of Peace for nearly a week and you want to return to it."

"..." The snow leopard felt like a guilty teen that had been caught with a dirty magazine. He was embarrassed that he was such an open book to Tai-Shen... As if his thoughts were movies, being projected on his own forehead for Tai-Shen to idily watch and critique at his leisure. "...I have." He admitted, a bit snarkily, but his ears perked up as he remembered the bag of black dust in his paws. "Wait... are you saying I can go back to the Valley? Am I really ready for that?"

"No you're not." The black panther quickly shot down Tai-Lung's joy. Making his ears return to their dull, low sitting position.

"What? Why not? Well if I can't go then... then why did you give me this bag? You said it was a disguise right?" Tai-Lung began to get upset, and turned away from Tai-Shen. "I don't get you sometimes... You treat me with respect and dignity sometimes, then other times you treat me like a child. Like I'm your little kitten that you can tug around on a string."

"Well... aren't you?" Tai-Shen asked very plainly, with a dark shimmer crossing his eyes. Tai-Lung noticed, and snorted.

"No... I'm a grown man. No one ever told me what to do."

"What about your father?" Tai-Shen took a step back to sit on Tai-Lung's _bed_, which was actually just a slab of rock and a bed roll that stunk of lonley rhino hide and tears.

"I have no father... The only man that was in my life was knee-high and too stubborn to be called _father_ after I was strong enough to kick his ass."

"And that was..."

"When I was fifteen! FIFTEEN!" Tai-Lung shouted and stabbed an accusing finger at Tai-Shen. "I could beat Master Shifu... my _father_ in a proper duel at age fifteen... and I beat him again only last year, in an all out brawl!"

"I know..." Tai-Shen commented and clapped his paws. "I was there, I saw the whole thing."

"...Excuse me...?" Tai-Lung gasped lightly... feeling rage growing in his own throat. "What do you mean you _'Saw the Whole Thing?'_ Were you spying on me? Were you spying on Master Shifu?"

"I wasn't spying on anyone... I was just watching... I wasn't able to help you at the time, or else I would have but... I was impressed with your victory over Shifu, and I was... happy, you didn't kill him."

"...Something told me _not_ to kill that old badger." The snow leopard exhaled deeply, blowing a steam of cold frost from his own jaws... visibly expressing his dark disposition. "But I would have... But he apologized for his ... neglect, for his betrayal... But I had to make him pay."

"And that you did... I understand that he's made a full recovery however... Are you still interested in bringing bodily harm to him?"

"No." Tai-Lung exhaled deeply, this time without the snow blowing effect. "No I'm not... My quarrel with Shifu is over."

"Then why do you want to return to the Valley...? Why, exactly?" Tai-Shen sat forward as he asked his key question, slowly stroking his long white whiskers and gazing straight into Tai-Lung's worried and somewhat confused eyes.

"... I want... I ..."

"...yes?"

"...The Dragon Warrior..."

"What about him?" The black panther sat back, "Are you after revenge?"

"I am." Tai-Lung proclaimed, holding up one of his fists slowly coating the surface of his paw in ice. "I think I'm ready."

"Actually, you're not... At your current level, falling down stairs could rupture something inside of you and cause you to bleed uncontrollably..." Tai-Shen informed his student who was stunned by the information.

"A-are you serious? I'm... that fragile right now?"

"You're incredibly fragile right now... Your body is strong and resilient to pain, however your body was also propelled through nearly three miles of dirt,bvgh roots and stone. Your organs are still recovering even though your skin is fine. I'm actually surprised you didn't burst a blood vessel when you stretched to pop your back this morning... I really should get you a better bed to sleep on."

"Why didn't you tell me this earlier old man?" Tai-Lung roared out, truly frightened for his own safety. "Are you telling me I can't fight? I've been doing all this training and I can't fight anyone or I'll burst?"

"Yep, like a pig bladder filled with soup." Tai-Shen nodded solemnly, "But what you've been doing isn't just _training_ Tai-Lung, it's also _Taisou,_ _Physical Therapy. _A way to increase the rate at which your torn, wounded and atrophied muscles can recover. I restored your missing flesh and mended your fatal wounds, but you have to keep yourself alive. Understand?"

"Um... a little." Tai-Lung held his head with a paw. "A little."

"Well try to commit to memory, alright?" The panther rose from Tai-Lung's bed and placed one of his large black paws on the Snow Leopard's broad shoulder. "However- I forbid you from engaging in combat with anyone for another week or so... because you're in critical condition even though you don't look it. Once those scars on your face heal, you're allowed to fight, got it?"

Tai-Lung nodded swiftly like he was being scolded by his father and avoiding a whipping by being obident.

"Second, stay away from the Valley of Peace, because it's you'll go back and do something stupid, and you'll come back to me covered in blood... if you come back at all."

"So... You're allowing me to leave?" Tai-Lung turned to Tai-Shen hopefully as the elder panther began walking away from him. Tai-Shen walked for a full minute before turning back to Tai-Lung and nodding with a smile.

"Provided-" Tai-Shen began to lay down rules. "The first two rules I mentioned you commit to memory."

Tai-Lung held up two fingers and recited those same rules. "No Fighting, No Valley of Peace. Right Master?"

"Correct... and, here..." Tai-Shen threw forward his paw at Tai-Lung flinging two small parcols at the snow leopard, which Tai-Lung caught with no problem. "These will aide you, because I've no idea how long you'll be gone."

Tai-Lung opened both leather pouches, revealing bandages and medicine in one bag, and in the other bag was yuan... a lot of it. "Wow... This is..."

"It was ... acquired from the corpses of the guards. I did alot of exploring in this cave while you were asleep for nearly a year. The bandages are to stop any bleeding wounds that may... _spring up_ in case of an accident, and the medicine you found with your bandages are adrenaline pills. If you run out of bandages, or you're afraid of death, take one... Your heart rate and blood flow will increase, but you'll glow like a beacon to me, and I'll come and find you."

Tai-Lung nodded, appreciative of the gifts bestowed upon him by his gracious master. "T-thank you Tai-Shen... Thank you."

"Please, my son... Just call me... _Master._"

"I – I will, Master." Tai-Lung bowed, smiling brightly. He would finally be able to leave Chorh Gom Prison, which was good because he was starting to go a bit stir crazy sitting still for so long.

"Oh and one last thing, my son." Tai-Shen called out to Tai-Lung.

"Yes, Master?" Tai-Lung began fitting his bags to his belt so they wouldn't get misplaced.

"With the money I've provided you, you should be able to purchase supplies on the road, and you should buy yourself a comfortable bedroll while you're out."

"A... bed roll? Can't you fabricate a good one for me while I'm gone?"

"..." Tai-Shen shook his head with a laugh. "Very well, I suppose I could. It's not like I sleep anyway, and even if I could, I wouldn't be able to get a moments rest knowing you're out on your own..."

Tai-Lung's heart felt warm for a moment, because it sounded as though Tai-Shen was genuinely concerned about his well being. "Hey... Old man... I mean, uh... Master."

"Yes?" Tai-Shen asked, stretching his own aged muscles before leaving to search the prison for supplies to make Tai-Lung a better bed.

"Everything you're doing for me... I... really appreciate it, and I promise I won't get myself killed. I'll come back so you can teach me more of your skills, and how to better master my own."

"Just be sure to stay alive, oh and the black ash I gave you is a special powder used to manipulate color... Something like a dry dye... It's resilient to water, but not against sweat and spit. If you're spit on, or you sweat too much, it will start to run and bleed off of you. Commit that to memory."

"Uh... Ok." Tai-Lung thought for a moment... a _black_ dry dye that masked fur colors. Could... Tai-Shen... be wearing the same stuff?

_**.**_

_**.**_

_Day 8 : Afternoon_

_China – The Jade Palace_

_._

_._

"No more fighting... Understand?" Shifu was very upset with both his newly awaken students. The Masters of Tiger and '_Panda'_ styles fighting amongst one another in their own home was unacceptable, and something that should only occur when there was a friendly duel announced... The Dragon Warrior and Master Tigress were standing in front of Shifu who was threatening the both of them with his wooden flute. It wasn't so much as a disciplinary device as it was just a musical instrument, however Shifu has a passion for making unconventional tools into deadly weapons and a hollowed out cylinder of wood in Shifu's palms was more threatening than the open jaws of a hungry alligator.

"We understand, Master." Tigress responded, bowing her head, while keeping her paws behind her back... out of reach.

"I'm really sorry Master Shifu, it was all my fault-" Po began to explain, but Tigress cut in before the panda could open his mouth.

"He's lying Master. It was my fault, I woke in a rage due to my new power... It overwhelmed me when I woke up." Tigress lied through her teeth, turning to the Dragon Warrior slowly with a sinister grin on her face that said '_Agree, or die...'_

Which Po conceded to and agreed hastily, "Heh heh, I was just trying to help but... Yeah fire and stuff and... danger. It was just a big mix up Master Shifu."

Shifu's gaze shifted from face to face. His stern and serious face, slowly faded to a cool, collected and relaxed expression, one that put Tigress and Po, slightly at ease.

"Well I trust you two won't do anything foolish that will jeopardize the health of your fellow Masters as they battle to come to terms with their mind's eye." Shifu turned his back to his students and sighed, "Also Tigress..."

"Y-yes Master?" Master Tigress stood up straight, expecting some kind of punishing since she took the blame for the incident.

"I'm curious... How was your '_trial by fire'_?" Shifu questioned his best and brightest, while pocketing his flute into his kimono sleeve.

"Oh, you mean to wake up? It... well... it's rather hard to explain, Master." Tigress lowered her head slowly and exhaled. "It... makes my head hurt to think about it..."

"Then don't worry about it Tigress, I was merely curious. Oogway told me that... the experience changes from person to person. For instance, I was tasked with facing one of my greatest fears... to come to terms with a strict and stern relative..." Shifu exhaled deeply himself. "If your experience was anything like my own, I can imagine why you would hesitate to convey it."

"...It was similar..." Tigress whispered, closing her eyes and withholding a tear that was developing behind her shut eyelids.

"I will be by the Sacred Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom if you need me, please try not to burn anymore of the palace while I'm gone." With those words, Shifu slowly exited the scene. Leaving Tigress and Po alone together infront of the Jade Palace. Almost immediately as the front gates shut, both of Tigress' fists lit on fire, making Po jump back so he wouldn't be hit again.

"I said I was sorry!" The Dragon Warrior shouted, holding up his paws in defense.

"..." Tigress didn't say anything as she began to breathe. Inhaling and exhaling deeply through her flaring nostrils while Po attempted to straighten up.

"Look... I really didn't ... mean to do what I was doing. I just wanted to help you cool off, because you looked like you were-"

"Too hot?" Tigress cut in, while turning her head slightly towards the Dragon Warrior so that she could glare at him with one eye.

"Um... yeah." Po admitted, gulping. "I'm not a pervert."

"You are a pervert." Tigress smiled, extinguishing her fists.

"I'm not a pervert!" Po attempted to argue, holding up his hands innocently.

"You _are_ a pervert!" Tigress pushed the issue with an even larger smile on her face.

"I am _not_ a pervert!" Po shouted, "I'm not! I'm not! I was only trying to help!"

"Hahaha!" Master Tigress broke out into a fit of laughter. "Calm down Po, I'm sure your intentions were good, but you should try not to wake women like that."

"I really didn't mean to wake you. You were twisting around and kept yelling the word '_Hot_' over and over and you were getting sweaty... I figured I could help somehow." The Dragon Warrior sheepishly looked off in another direction as he confessed more of his story aloud.

"So why were you after my pants?" Tigress half growled, but she was still smiling. "I know you're not that type of person, Po. However if it were Mantis, I would have been worried... and irritated... and confused."

"Confused about what? Mantis is... well... straight forward, don't you think?" The Dragon Warrior thought out loud, approaching Tigress finally to bow in forgiveness.

Tigress waved a hand idly to tell Po to quit playing around. She didn't really care about his antics nor did she want an apology. She wanted... well, _needed_ to be near him for a while anyway, so better the awkwardness to occur now than later on. "Well Mantis _is- ... _never mind." Tigress cut herself off with a laugh. "Hey, Dragon Warrior. What do you usually do for fun?"

"Me?" Po paused.

"Yes you, who else is awake?" Master Tigress responded, sitting a saucy paw on her hip and asking again. "What do _you_ usually do for fun? I mean we're the only ones awake, and there's nothing that can harm our sleeping friends. So let's..."

Without warning, and before Tigress could complete her sentence, Po's hands lit on fire. The flame was very similar to how bright and violent Tigress' flames were, although the aura surrounding the Dragon Warrior's fists was teal instead of a bright orange.

"Ah-?" Tigress took a step back. "Wait... I forgot to ask, when _did_ you wake up?" Tigress questioned, while extending a paw to attempt to touch Po's fledgling flame. But Po pulled his paw away before their hands could touch.

"I wouldn't touch it if I were you Tigress, I hardly even know how to control it."

"I'm not afraid of a little fire Po..." She half whispered, while gazing into the blue flame surrounding the Dragon Warrior's palm. "Does it hurt?" She asked, extending her hand to touch the top of the Dragon Warrior's own paw, as if the flames didn't hurt in the least.

"Uh... no, well... yeah. It starts to hurt after a little while, but... does it hurt you?" Po was amazed that Tigress was able to touch him through the blue fire. He wasn't exactly sure he had the skill or talent to wield and control his chi yet but Tigress had no fear of her own chi, or his... As Po watched Tigress' eyes dance across his coursing arms and the brilliant blue flames, he felt his heart start to slowly flutter. Master Tigress was always in his heart and in his thoughts, but the fact that she was willing to stand so close and examine him made him feel a little closer to her. He knew, or hoped, that he wasn't a test subject... Master Tigress was a deep woman with much pain and mystery behind her life. She knew almost everything about Tai-Lung and could recite his history standing on her head... but she never whispered a single word about her own past... Not a word about her mother or her father, nothing about how she ended up at the Bao Gu Orphanage, and nothing about what she wanted to do with her life... Po was an open book, for everyone to read and enjoy, however... Master Tigress was a sealed vault... with no key or password to reveal her secrets.

Po began to feel the fur on his paws start to crisp and burn, so he quickly pulled his dangerous paws away from Master Tigress, who almost fell forward as he tugged away from her.

"Ah!" Tigress gasped, and caught herself at the same time Po caught her with his extinguished paws. "Sorry about that."

"Oh no, no it was my fault." Po nervously laughed for a second, creating an awkward silence as he noticed he was holding both of Tigress' paws in his own.

She noticed before he did but she didn't mention it at first, but as the seconds turned into minutes, Tigress' patience slowly bled out of her humble heart, and she snatched her own paws out of Po's sweaty hands. "Yep – it's _always_ your fault, Dragon Warrior."

"What?" Po stammered, "Is it really?"

"You figure it out, while you take me to the Valley for some food, learning new Chi and working for four days straight has me completely famished." Master Tigress stretched and made a bee line around Po and to the gate of the Jade Palace.

"...You want me to take you out for food?" Po asked, looking around as if he were in a crowd of suitors. "Me? Really?"

"Yes _You!_" Grunted the hungry tiger, "Let's stop wasting time and get something to eat. I'm not really thinking clearly and I think I need something in my stomach to get me back on track."

"Some..." Po began to stammer but his paws lit on fire once again with the same teal fire as always. "Ah, I'm so sorry!" He shivered and clapped at his arms with his hands as if he were on _actual_ fire. "Damn damn damn!"

Tigress gazed at the Dragon Warrior and his antics. Normally, Tigress would have lost her cool and began shouting like a nanny possessed, but... No one was really around to see her out of character so instead of shouting at the top of her lungs at the immaturity Po was exhibiting, a fit of laughter jumped into her throat instead, even though her stomach was growling with hunger.

_**.**_

_**.**_

_Day 8 : Midnight_

_China – Sun Lo & The Li Da Academy_

_._

_._

Tai-Lung stetched hard as he pushed his way through a rowty crowd watching a bar fight. Apparently the brawl had spilled out into the street and the combatants were busy gathering a crowd while they occupied their time trying to punch out the other man's teeth. Tai-Lung was in disguise so he wasn't worried about being discovered for who he was, and with such a convincing tone added to his fur, he was virtually as unnoticable as the rest of the bar patrons and street thugs that had gathered around the front of the tavern to watch the brawl.

"Yeah yeah! Hit him!" A drunk man cheered.

"Knock his teeth in!" Shouted another patron.

"Teach 'em a lesson! Woo!" Called another man that oddly sounded like Master Crane.

'_What the hell is going on out here?' _Tai-Lung muttered to himself as he managed to push his way to the front of the growing crowd, where he saw a rhino and a panda fist fighting.

"A-a panda...?" Tai-Lung's mouth went dry... and his mind was immediately assaulted by Tai-Shen's warning.

_" ' Your organs are still recovering... if you fight ... you'll pop like a pig bladder filled with soup. ' "_ Tai-Shen's words swept over his mind but... the Dragon Warrior was right here... right? It would be the perfect time to break him in half... right here, right now, all Tai-Lung would do is hit him once or twice without being hit himself. But as Tai-Lung watched the fight, he could feel his own scars and wounds threatening to bleed at the Panda's fist connected with the Rhino's lower jaw.

"Holy Sh-..." Tai-Lung whispered, and the Rhino fell over onto his back.

"Yeaaaaah!" A few guys from the crowd cheered, but before the fight could continue more rhinos entered the ring to assist their fallen brother.

"What the..." Tai-Lung growled as the ring of fighters shifted from two up to five. But the unfair number wasn't what Tai-Lung was concerned in... He looked at the rhinos closer and began to notice the marks on their clothes and the dark expressions in their eyes... They were Chorch Gom Guards... or Ex-Guards at least, and they were causing trouble?

"Grouping up?" The panda laughed. "Come come now, that's not polite."

"Yeah? We'll we don't play fair." One of the four ex-guard rhino's growled and stepped forward cracking his knuckles in his fist.

"Then come and get it you pathetic excuses for public servants!" The lone panda demanded and held his hands up in a stance that didn't look... like anything to Tai-Lung. As the four rhinos charged forward, Tai-Lung began to understand this wasn't any kind of duel... it also wasn't a _fair_ fight. The fight between him and Furious Five was fair... but this Panda didn't have any training... He wasn't the Dragon Warrior, he was far too thin, far too muscular and too brave to be the Dragon Warrior...

A rhino was tossed into the air by the panda and another was knocked to the floor by a destructive black fist, but the panda was too outnumbered to keep his good luck going. The crowd cheered as the two standing rhinos got a hold of the panda and began beating him. One rhino held the panda in a full nelson by his arms while the other rhino kept hitting the subdued brawler in the face and stomach, and the crowd couldn't get enough of the carnage.

"Wooo!" A lone man shouted.

"Yeah yeah yeah! Get some!" Another spectator shouted.

"This isn't right..." Tai-Lung snarled, watching the same jailers that tortured him, torture this panda. And it got even worse when the two downed rhinos rose to join in on the beating. The panda however, was laughing and grinning, showing off his bloody teeth and busted lip.

"The four of you are pathetic, no wonder Tai-Lung escaped. He was tired of the failure he was forked to witness each and every day."

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH!" A rhino shouted and punched the panda in the throat that sent him to the ground coughing hard.

"Yeah! You like that?" Another ex-guard laughed and stomped on the panda's back. "Take that you loud mouthed rat!"

The crowds cheering got even louder and louder as the fight got less and less fair and acceptable. But Tai-Lung was quiet... Here he was watching a panda getting beaten like he was a traitor of the nation but... he wasn't smiling. There was no joy in Tai-Lung's heart in seeing such brutality... Such a disgusting display of _order _and _justice... _He had to step in.

The four rhinos stomped on the panda and laughed as the crowd cheered. One rhino in particular began shouting down at the downed fighter. "Tai-Lung escaped because he was a dirty, unpredictable murderer. Nobody knows how he got out, but if we ever saw him again, we'd hang him for his crimes, but we'll hang you first as a proper demonstration!"

"NO YOU WONT!" Tai-Lung shouted and dove from the crowd with his arms out.

The four rhinos had no time to avoid the ex-Dragon Warrior's assault. The four of them were taken off their feet by the snow leopard in disguise and clothes-lined to the dirt.

"What the hell?" A rhino coughed, feeling his throat bruised badly from the mild assault.

Tai-Lung pulled himself away from the four and quickly ran over to the Panda who was coughing up blood and spit. "Hey... Hey are you ok?" He asked, placing a paw on the man's shoulder.

The panda's left eye was shut tight and slightly bloody, and his teeth were covered in crimson but he smiled none the less. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks buddy." He extended his hand to Tai-Lung who was offering his own to help him to his feet.

The four rhinos pulled themselves off the ground like a turtle would roll over if it was stuck on it's back, which left Tai-Lung and the panda plenty of time to rise and get into defensive stances. The crowd surrouding this brawl had grown so large that men, women and children had begun to accumulate on rooftops, carriages and even riding on shoulders like birds of prey waiting for a corpse to fall. But their cheering was louder than a Colosseum that had just drawn first blood.

"Hey," The panda turned to Tai-Lung, extending a paw to shake the black snow leopard's hand. "My name is Wonton, by the way. Wonton Rin."

"Oh, my name is.. t...t... Tetsu."

"T-T-Tetsu?" Wonton laughed and spit blood for a moment. "Funny name."

"It's just Tetsu, and you should talk, you're named after food." Tai-Lung argued, feeling a bit hurt.

"Yeah, everyone in my family is named after food, what are you named after?"

"It was my father's name." Tai-Lung plainly responded as the cheering got louder in his ear once the four ex-guards all rose to their feet.

"Come get some!" Wonton shouted and pounded his fists together.

"We'll hang BOTH of you!" The four brawlers roared and charged forward with bloodlust in their eyes.

Tai-Lung immediately ducked both fists thrown at his head and Wonton stuck out his barrel chest to absorb the fists and returned the attack with a spinning roundhouse kick that took one of the attackers off their feet.

"This is too easy!" Wonton laughed, but he caught a fist to his chin. However he was tough, very tough. He grabbed the rhino's fist and turned it to force the Rhino to bend forward and shout in pain, and Wonton was in control.

Tai-Lung rose from his evade and kicked both rhino in their faces with a rising split kick, very similar to Tigress' own kicks. Tai-Lung landed in time to see a the Rhino at the mercy of Wonton and beckoned for the panda to release him.

"Throw him over here!" Tai-Lung shouted.

"No problem, Tetsu. Nut Bag on the way, hold the intel!" Wonton twisted the arm in his grip slightly tighter to direct his victim towards the black snow leopard and gave him a kick in the ass to send him on the way.

_Tetsu_, caught a hold of the rhino as he stumbled over and rolled backwards to flip the rhino onto his head and roll him out into the crowd of on lookers, who all shouted like they had never seen a wrestling take down in their lives.

"Hey good one." Wonton complimented Tetsu and pulled a rhino to his feet. "Get up you dirty bastard."

The rhino growled, "Hah! Take this!" He crouched and punched Wonton low in the crotch... but the panda grinned down at the rhino with his red bloody teeth.

"Oh that was just embarrassing..." Wonton laughed and shoved his fingers into the Rhino's eyes and applied pressure to force his victim off the floor, which then he turned his attention to the crowd. "What do you think I should do with this one? Does he deserve mercy?"

Tai-Lung watched as Wonton began putting on a show for the audience. '_What the hell is going on?'_ He thought as he watched the crowd give a completely unanimous _'Thumbs Down' _to set their decision.

"W-what?" Tai-Lung coughed as he watched Wonton's smile turn from wild to sinister. Before Tai-Lung even knew what he was going to do, he began to squint his eyes, but not before Wonton's fingers burrowed into the rhino's head to destroy his eyes. The rhino shouted out in extreme pain, much to the pleasure of the blood thirsty crowd, but apparently Wonton had had enough and pulled his bloody paw away from the rhinos eye sockets and fixed it on the mans throat and crushed it in one, powerful twisting motion.

"YES! YES! YES!" A woman shouted from the crowd.

"AWESOME!" Hollered another onlooker as the rhino fell forward dead.

"YEAH! WAY TO TEACH HIM WONTON!" Another woman called from the insane crowd of spectators.

"Tetsu! Watch out!" Wonton then shouted, as he turned to the black snow leopard who was completely stunned by the fatality that took place in front of him. Even as Tai-Lung felt himself bleeding inside from the heavy foot that had hit him in his spine, he was still stunned. He fell forward and felt time start to slow down... It was as if he was at the end of the road and he knew it... All he could hear was voices... no shouting, no cheering, just the voices of the people who actually deserved attention according to his own ears. One voice was Wonton, the valiant panda who charged past his fallen figure to unload a flurry of fists onto the rhino that had hit him in the back.

But Tai-Lung's eyes still worked, he turned his vision up to the last rhino standing, but all he could see was his foot. It was coming down towards his face... He was going to crush his skull. Tai-Lung exhaled slowly, trying to desperately move but his body wasn't listening... He felt cold... he felt... scared and he couldn't figure out why... He could almost hear Tai-Shen in his head, screaming for him to move... But his body wasn't working... Then he began thinking... '_How long has it been since I had a decent meal?'_

Tai-Lung closed his eyes to wait for the foot to crush his head, but it never happened. He reopened his eyes to see a lithe figure in front of him, thoroughly beating the snot out of the Rhino who was quickly falling to the floor.

'_What's going on?_ Tai-Lung thought to himself as the crowd finally rushed forward to grab at the fallen rhinos and began stripping them of everything they were wearing. '_God... They're like vultures... This town is... so lawless...'_

A paw touched Tai-Lung's rump for a moment, which made the black snow leopard attempt to turn around to see what was going on. It was just a man trying to steal his belongings... The man grabbed the bag of coins, but he was kicked in the stomach by the same thin figure who had saved him from the executioner with the evil foot. Tai-Lung could taste blood in his mouth and knew that he was in trouble... hopefully the figure who was pulling him onto his feet was Tai-Shen. But the black snow leopard wasn't very sure... His vision went black and everything faded away.

_**.**_

_**.**_

_Day 9 : Morning_

_China – The Li Da Academy_

_._

.

"AAH!" Tai-Lung sat up, shouting. No one was around, he quickly examined the room he had been placed in... thankful that it wasn't a prison cell or anything of the like. The room was... dark, very dark. But he could hear birds flying by, jabbering about the fight that had happened only a night ago. So he was certain that he was still in whatever lawless village he'd wandered into but... Things were alot calmer now.

"Where am I...? Did Tai-Shen save me?" The frightened cat began talking to himself as he swung his legs to hang them over the edge of the bed and examine himself. His lowerbody, below his toned pecks, had been wrapped in thick, but dirty, bandages... And both his paws up to his elbows had been wrapped in gauze. Although his hands weren't hurting... perhaps the physician that aided him thought the chi scarring was a bruise or an actual burn.

"It couldn't have been Tai-Shen..." Tai-Lung mumbled and pushed off the bed to stand. Immediately feeling a shock of pain rush through his body, but he still managed to stand and remain on his feet, however he did grunt in pain loud enough to finally call attention to himself.

The door to Tai-Lung's temporary dorm opened swiftly, almost causing Tai-Lung to fall back onto his bed in shock. The opened door revealed the thin figure that had rescued him along side Wonton last night. A thin, very thin but bustly feline. Her fur was a soft golden brown speckled with brown streaks and ovals like she put on her own Snow Leopard spots. Her eyes were deep brown and orange and accompanied by a bright smile on her small muzzle. The woman's ears were very large however... something like how large Tai-Shen's ears were but not nearly as jagged, or as dark. The woman stepped forward into Tai-Lung's room and extended a paw towards him.

"Hey there big guy, you sleep well?" The mountain cat took and shook Tai-Lung's hand swiftly, and smiled sweetly as she applied pressure to his _much larger_ paw, squarely to show that she wasn't interested in being ridiculed for being a woman.

"Uh... y-yeah..." Tai-Lung stammered, mostly speachless. Could this be his newest savoir?

"What's wrong? Never seen a female fighter before?" She asked, releasing the ex-prisoner's paw and placing her paws on her hips in a spunky manner.

"Yeah, I have... I just wasn't too clear on there being more than one of them. Who are you?"

"Heh heh my name is, Ai Mei-Ling. Call me-"

"Mei-Ling...!" Tai-Lung paused, "Wait... I've heard of you... You're a student from the Li-Da Fighting School aren't you?"

Mei-Ling giggled, stepping back and taking a more heroic pose. "Well actually, I'm the leader of the Li-Da Fighting School now. Where have _you_ been for the last ten years?"

"In Prison." Tai-Lung accidentally exposed, and put a paw over his mouth in embarrassment, now getting a face full of bandage.

"Ah, so what? Did you escape? Or were you released on good behavior? Those scars all over your face make you look like you were in for some hard time, or a long time." Mei-Ling stepped up to Tai-Lung to examine his face and put her paws all over it... something that Tai-Lung wouldn't have normally allowed, but this situation was different.

"I... yeah... prison was tough. I... was tired of being there so I... escaped." He confessed slowly, not thinking clearly through Mei-Ling's scent and her feminine wiles. Her paws were small, and very soft compared to his own and Tai-Shen's. There wouldn't have been much argument coming from Tai-Lung if Mei-Ling was his nurse for those eight months. He would have preferred that instead of having Tai-Shen doing the custodial duties.

"Escapee huh?. I like that." She half-whispered, leaning in closer to try and get a proper nose full of Tai-Lung's scent while observing his deep wounds, trying her best not to re-open them. But the air surrounding the black snow leopard was plain and partially stale, like he didn't have a scent, or it was being masked by something . . .

"...what... are... you... doing." Tai-Lung half whispered back, looking down into Mei-Ling's eyes as her face kept drawing closer to his.

"You have a marvelous structure, it's rare to see someone so well kept in Sun-Lo." The mountain cat admitted, while slightly stepping back to adjust herself. "May I ask your name?"

"My... name... is Tetsu." Tai-Lung lied, he didn't like lying but... there wasn't a point if being truthful right now, if he revealed who he actually was... there would be a whole world of trouble waiting for him that he physically wasn't prepared for. But when Mei-Ling began to smile instead of critically question his name, he felt relieved.

"Well then Tetsu, it's nice to meet you. I'm glad you didn't get yourself killed last night." The mountain cat smiled up at the taller black snow leopard. "You hungry? You're going to need your strength today."

"Food? I'd enjoy food." Tetsu began to smile, showing off his bloody fangs. He wasn't even completely aware that he had almost bled to death last night. "But what am I going to need energy for? Am I doing community service for fighting?"

"Community Service?" Mei-Ling laughed and took Tai-Lung by a hand to lead him out of the Li-Da Medical Ward and down a long hallway into the Mess Hall where there were many people sitting around eating rice and noodles.

However when Mei-Ling entered the hall, all of the eating ceased. Each and every uniformed student in the room stood and bowed in Mei-Ling's direction.

"Good Morning Master!" The entire hall shouted in Mei-Ling and Tai-Lung's direction. The black snow leopard was surprised... It was like being at the Jade Palace. He looked over the students... most of them weak and sickly looking, but from the crowd there were the rare gems of masterful teaching and superior genes... The Li-Da Academy didn't yield nearly as many Martial Arts Masters as the Jade Palace did, which made a small grin appear on Tai-Lung's face even as Mei-Ling began to guide him through the crowd of still standing and saluting students.

"Good Morning everyone," Mei-Ling smiled and nodded to a few students within the standing military. "Please, continue eating. Whenever you are ready you may begin training in the yard against one another, I'll soon be leaving on a journey, so I trust you all can keep my academy standing."

"Leaving?" Tai-Lung paused. "Wait... you're leaving?"

"They're all used to it. I don't have to actively instruct my students, they duel against each other and learn based on live experience."

Tai-Lung stopped, but kept his grip on Mei-Ling's paw, forcing her to abruptly stop in the process.

"No no, I'm not talking about them. Where are _you_, going. You don't expect me to stay here do you? Because I'm not a teacher."

Mei-Ling turned slowly to Tai-Lung with a grin on her face, as if she were fancying the thought of leaving the new male behind, specifically to see if he would survive the school's rugged and grueling training. But in his current state, Tai-Lung couldn't climb a tree without bursting a blood vessel somewhere.

"No, I'm not going to leave you here. You look too out of place to be here by yourself." She responded, pulling her gloved paw free of Tai-Lung's grip and placing her paws on her hips. "You're going to be my bodyguard."

"What...?" Tai-Lung paused again, then held his head in his paws. "Ok lady, what makes you think _I_, can be a bodyguard?"

"Oh you..." Mei-Ling sighed sweetly and placed her paws on Tai-Lung's cheeks, drawing his face close to her own to get his full attention. "I can see your pain... I can see it in your eyes."

"...See... what?" The black snow leopard slowly whispered. "What do you see?"

"I can see... Pain.. Loss. Fatigue. Your eyes are pained... once proud, but now... wounded and vengeful. I can see it in your eyes that there's alot of regret in your life that's got your soul teeming with revenge."

"Um..." Tai-Lung pulled his face away from Mei-Ling, very embarrassed that more than one person could read him so easily. "I... guess. Why? How do you know all this?"

"Well you're surely not an average man. You're muscles are huge, your face is full of scars, and you've got the eyes of a saint... You've been through alot in your life and you're hiding it. Not to mention I heard from Wonton that you jumped in to help him fight last night. And as you could guess, nobody in this town will jump in to help anyone."

Tai-Lung sneered slightly, "Yeah... I know, and one of them stole my money from me when I was paralyzed."

"It's probably been spent on beer and gauze by now. I kicked his teeth in but I had no idea he took your coins." The mountain cat apologized lightly, while glancing up into Tai-Lung's eyes again as if she were looking for something. Tai-Lung noticed this and took a step back, accidentally tripping over the stairs that led back into the Li-Da Mess Hall.

"Gah!" Tai-Lung gasped as he fell and wasn't caught by Mei-Ling, who actually made an attempt. "So... you think I have a deep and twisted past of endurance, success, betrayal and defeat... Who doesn't? That doesn't make any sense as to why you want me to accompany you to... wherever you're going."

"I'm going to the Valley of Peace." Mei-Ling revealed, which opened Tai-Lung's eyes wide. "That fight you jumped into last night was caused by Rhino's that used to guard Tai-Lung. These guys think they're under _Royal Protection _because they used to work for Shifu and the late Grand Master Oogway, but here they're just people who can be beaten to the floor as fast as anybody else... and I like to take at least one person with me, incase I'm unable to return."

"So you want me to accompany you to the Valley of Peace... and you're going to the Jade Palace, to see Master Shifu?" Tai-Lung attempted to mask his anxiety under his masculine physique by closing his eyes and scratching his chin with a paw. It worked.

"Yeah. I am. Are you reconsidering? Will you come with me?" Mei-Ling clasped her paws together hopefully. She didn't actually _know_ who Tetsu was yet, nor did she know if she could even trust him, but she was a Master of Leopard Kung Fu, like Tai-Lung, and a Master of the Japanese Bo Staff like Master Monkey, so she was certain in her own abilities to defend herself from danger, even if the danger was from her own personally appointed bodyguard.

"Yes." Tai-Lung replied as he stood, and took Mei-Ling's paws in his own. "I'll accompany you, and I promise no harm will come to you on our journey."


	4. Chapter 4

.

.

**Tetsu**

**.**

**IV**

**.**

**.**

_Day 9 : Noon_

_China – The Valley of Peace_

_._

_._

Tigress yawned loudly as she sat idly in Mr. Ping's noodle shop... Her chaperon for the evening, Po, had taken off some time ago to go gather a few of his personal treasures to show off to Tigress because they were '_So Awesome'_ and he'd been missing for some time. Master Tigress thought she could hear the Panda's voice echo over the chattering crowd of rabbits, ducks, pigs and sheep but it whenever she heard him speak, it was immediately drowned out by the voice of someone else that would yell, or a voice that sounded like Mr. Ping's … None the less, Tigress was very bored. The most that had happened since she and Po awoke was a light display of their powers in the result of burning half the Jade Palace and being shouted at by Master Shifu; as if that wouldn't have happened, and well …noodles. Noodles weren't normally in Tigress' diet, but she wanted Po to accept her as a friend more than sister in battle, or just an ally... Although it was hard to bond with someone when they weren't even there, so the fading Tigress decided to skip out on whatever Po was planning on displaying, and wander the Valley for a while... to get her thoughts together.

She rose from her table and somehow managed to almost run over a small rabbit and duck that were playing in the isles like the restaurant was a park.

"'cuse me M-Master Tigress." One of the small children apologized.

"Yeah, 'cuse me Mast-ter T-tigress." Stuttered the other child and they ran back to their respective tables to be scolded by their parents.

"It's... no problem." Tigress attempted to apologize herself but the children had run away before she even had the chance...

Things had changed...

Before, back when Oogway was still alive and Tigress was the only Master and the Furious Five wasn't even the official name of her team, she would get unfathomable levels of respect and attention from the citizens of the Valley... but now... Now that Po is the face of Kung Fu, Master Tigress couldn't even get a reservation at the noodle shop unless she called ahead by a few days... It wasn't a welcome feeling to be apart of the crowd anymore. When Tigress was a kitten, all she wanted was acceptance. And once she began training under Shifu, both at the Bao Gu Orphanage, and in the Jade Palace, she was still different and unique... It was that presence that made her feel like she was … Tigress. Being different hurt at first, but time builds patience and acceptance and Tigress was forced to accept the fact that she was very different from the other children she was abandoned near... and after she became a lethal force... she didn't mind that type of diversity. But now, over twenty years later, Tigress' unique presence and aura had become so normal, that even small children could ram into Tigress' hip, and get away with a simple apology instead of fearing for their lives.

Was Tigress a monster like she admitted to being when she was a kid? Did she truly enjoy seeing fear in the eyes of her peers or... was she in love with being unique? Tigress wasn't sure... but she knew that she didn't want to be average. Average wasn't good enough for a woman who threw away her childhood, and dating years to become a lethal weapon, and now, a four alarm fire starter.

Master Tigress didn't hesitate to leave after she had almost been run over by a panda serving noodles to tables. Her rank being ignored wasn't a very large infraction but she didn't ignore the fact that people didn't think of her as a hero, savior, or legend anymore. All those titles had been forfeit over to the Dragon Warrior, who attained what she, and her ilk could not... Not even Tai-Lung was able to attain the Dragon Scroll, and because of what... _darkness?_ Could the Wise Grand Master Oogway not see the rage that would build in Tai-Lung's heart when he was denied the very title that he bled twenty years away to gain? Could that be the same reason why Po fell from the sky one year ago? Would Oogway have _really_ selected Tigress to be the Dragon Warrior, or would he have even held the Dragon Warrior Ceremony that day, or that _year_ had Tai-Lung not decided it was time to escape?

If Oogway could foretell Tai-Lung's return... Why didn't he also warn Shifu about how violent Tigress was? And if '_The Dragon Warrior'_ was the only _man_ that could stop Tai-Lung, wouldn't that mean that Tai-Lung was able enough to comfortably assume the title himself? It wasn't by choice that Tai-Lung struggled to attain the Dragon Scroll, nor was it by his own selfish will to seek out the scroll in the first place... Tai-Lung got confused, Tigress was confused, the both of them were jaded... wronged... and left without a proper explanation, the only difference was that Tigress had Viper... Mantis... Monkey and Crane there to console herself in for all five of them had lost what they were sweating and bleeding for, to a man who couldn't perform a split or lift his foot even half way towards his head...

All Tai-Lung had to console his pain? Nothing.

"But that was a long time ago..." Master Tigress whispered to herself, slightly clenching her large, darkened fists.

Lost in her own thoughts, Tigress wasn't completely focusing on the road, or where she was going. Her thoughts weren't completely collected at the time, but her heart was guiding her to where she wanted to go, and Tigress looked around once, then twice, then once again to confirm that she hadn't lost her mind... she had managed to find The Peace Tree of Heavenly Wisdom... and whom else was present there? No other than; Master Shifu.

"Excuse me Master, I did no mean to interrupt your meditation." Tigress apologized and bowed towards Shifu who was sitting with his legs crossed and his palms out stretched.

"That's quite alright, Tigress. You were lost in your own thoughts. Is there something wrong?" Shifu responded to his second best student and daughter without turning around or opening his eyes.

"...Yes, Master." Tigress admitted, but before she could begin speaking... she noticed there was something very wrong with her Master...

Master Shifu looked much larger than normal... His body mass was at least double. His kimono was sitting much larger on him as well, and the white braid that extended down the back of his head was now at least three or four feet long instead of a cool eight inches.

"Master have you been putting on weight?" Tigress took a step back. Her eyes wide with shock.

"Oh that's a cruel thing to say... I told you this was stupid." _Master Shifu, _began griping and stood up, coming to a height of over five feet.

"W-what the hell?" Tigress jumped away, and quickly put her paws up. She wasn't sure what was going on, but she was prepared to beat someone or something's head in.

"Chill, chill." The fake Shifu began speaking in a much different tone, and gestured for Tigress to calm down. When the Shifu turned around, it didn't look even half like Shifu... The face was too feline and catlike, and clearly too feminine and young to be Shifu. "We were just playing, are you ok?"

"Fu? Is that you?" Tigress exhaled deeply, placing a paw on her chest.

"Who else would it be?" The fake Shifu sucked it's paws into the brown kimono it was wearing and began patting off it's face furiously. The result was a small dust cloud forming over the face of the false Shifu that masked it's movements entirely, and once the cloud cleared. The Shifu was revealed to be a slender female snow leopard with small spots across her face, and sliding thin black streaks around her eyes. Her ears were a deep black and she wore all black clothing. There was a thick dark cloak that wrapped around the snow leopardess' neck and draped down her back, to match the rest of her outfit. She waved politely at Master Tigress, from her seat on Shifu's rock, and waved her purple hair around once to undo the braid it was tucked in.

"What are you doing here Fu?" Tigress snarled lightly, "You know you're not allowed inside the Valley and especially not _this_ close to the Jade Palace."

"Oh I know, but I came to see you. Why aren't you happy?" Fu-Mai smiled and jumped to her feet. "Why are you holding up your hands? And why are they... OH! You've been playing with Fire haven't you?"

"Why? Are you going to test your luck against me?" Tigress fell into her usual offensive stance. "You don't belong here Fu, go back to your sisters. Tai-Lung is dead and you'll never get the book..."

"You really want to fight?" The single Wu Sister, smiled and placed her paws inside her cloak to quickly draw two stone maces. Neither of which was decorated with spikes, of any kind. The maces actually resembled short bats more than a mace but none the less they were still deadly weapons. The single assassin twirled the weapons in her paws skillfully before giving Tigress a sinister fanged smile. "Why do you insist on resisting?"

"Because you're evil and that's what the righteous do... We fight Evil!" Tigress didn't hold back any longer, and lunged at Fu-Mai, creating a small aura of flame around her paws on her charge forward hoping that her new power would allow her to win.

"Poor, poor Ryoko will never learn..." Fu-Mai exhaled lightly, and charged at Tigress with blinding speed, something that Tigress always expected, but was never prepared for...

_**.**_

_**.**_

_Day 9 : Afternoon_

_China – Mr. Ping's Noodle Shop_

_._

.

"But... Can't I help or something?" Po gasped, completely out of breath from holding, what felt light, tons of his belongings in large boxes.

"No no son. You're a big man now. Full of responsibility, and duty. You need to move outta my house!" Mr. Ping laughed and tossed another box that appeared to be too heavy for him, onto the stack of boxes that Po was carrying.

"Aaaaiie! Dad! Dad! Wait!" The Dragon Warrior fell onto his butt, but managed to keep the leaning tower of his keepsakes in a steady pillar instead of becoming a rummage pile on the floor of the kitchen. "Dad!" Po coughed and wheezed.

"What is it, Po?" Mr. Ping's long neck appeared over the edge of Po's boxes as he adjusted his noodle hat. "Is there something wrong? Usually boys are overjoyed with moving out."

"Well yeah, there's something wrong. Don't you think this is kind of... sudden?" The Dragon Warrior began patting off his clothes and stepped around his packed up belongings to see his father face to face.

"Well …" Mr. Ping twirled his butchers knife in one hand for a short moment while he paused, then swiftly brought the blade down into his cutting table and into fish in a sharp but skillful swing, that was succeeded by dozens more swift and powerful cuts to mince the fish into small, bite-sized pieces. "No. It's been almost a year, and you haven't slept in that bed once after that huge fight with you and Shifu's boy."

"Shifu's boy...? Oh you mean, Tai-Lung? That... was a long time ago wasn't it?" Po scratched his chin, then sighed lightly.

Mr. Ping served the fish he was cutting to a customer and cleaned off his hands on his apron. He didn't have ears that stuck out from his skull, but he could hear the depression in his son's voice when he exhaled. The noodle shop owner slowly turned to his foster son and patted him on his arm, since that was the only place he could really reach comfortably.

"Look son," Mr. Ping began, "I'm not forsaking you, no one in their right mind would. But you're a grown man now... You have a lot more to be thinking of aside from your father and his well being. Besides... Li-Tang is doing a fantastic job of waitressing and cooking. You'll always have a home here."

"Yeah, I know dad but... I just... well... you know... it was just..."

"Sudden?" Mr. Ping laughed. "Boy, Li-Tang has been working with me for nearly three months now. You can thank her for cleaning you room."

"For cleaning my room... yeah, and for evicting me." Po muttered lightly, not noticing that Li-Tang had re-entered the kitchen.

"Evicting you...?" The female panda scoffed. "I figured you'd come back and get your stuff, and your dad thought you would have visited a lot sooner than _now_. I didn't evict anyone, I needed room for MY stuff." The panda standing before Po he'd never met before, but... he felt like he'd been waiting for her to show up his whole life. Her eyes were mad, her face was frowning, she had muscles, she had fangs, she had attitude, it was like Tigress in Panda form with all the saucy heat perfectly preserved.

"I didn't uh..." Po stammered, starting to laugh.

"Yeah, save it. You don't have to thank me for anything, just don't come around during operating hours unless you're going to help serve food." Li-Tang half hissed at Po as she exited the kitchen with a dozen noodle bowls balanced on her toned arms.

"...Wow." Po began to laugh. "She replaced me?"

"You can never be replaced Po." Mr. Ping added with a smile, but after a moment he clapped his butcher's knife into another hunk of fresh fish and turned a paring knife on seven separate vegetables to decimate them into glass thin slices in under ten seconds. "How-_ever!_ She has replaced you as my kitchen assistant so you can go on with your life as _the Dragon Warrior!"_

At that moment, Po felt as if he … well, kind of, understood what he father was trying to tell him. He technically _did_ have larger responsibilities other than making sure food was served hot and fresh. With Li-Tang as his dad's personal assistant he was free to adventure and defend righteousness without worrying if his father's business was still turning a profit each month. But then there was Li-Tang herself... when she and he first met, she appeared to be excited, flattered even, but … talking for a few moments made Li-Tang's attitude shift from ecstatic and interested to erratic and irritated. The Dragon Warrior wasn't sure if it was something he'd said or if it that he didn't arrive in formal attire, but he wanted to make a better impression on Li-Tang other than looking like a sorry guy who just got kicked out of his parents house.

"PO!" The Dragon Warrior's ears were filled with the female panda shouting his name. His heart began beating swiftly and he leapt to the opportunity to speak with Li-Tang again to somehow improve his relationship, but she wasn't smiling this time either.

"What's wrong? What's the problem?" Po asked, hoping that he would be asked to demonstrate his Kung-Fu prowess, but instead of a question or even a simple request, he was given the indication that there was a problem by the entire assembly of customers turned towards the Jade Palace and the Tree of Heavenly Wisdom that appeared to be engulfed in flame.

"By the emperor!" Po gasped, and pushed past Li-Tang hastily. "T-thanks for the heads up! Sorry I didn't make a great first impression!"

"Yeah … yeah. It's cool. Just... make sure everything is ok." Li-Tang whispered as Po rushed off, with a speed that she wasn't perfectly understanding... The Dragon Warrior didn't look like he could run fast, or even move with urgency, but the entire eating floor witnessed Po Ping running at an olympic level up the stairs of the Jade Palace. "Dragon Warrior huh? Impressive."

_**.**_

_**.**_

_._

.

"Aaaauugh..." Master Tigress was heard shouting as Po approached with godspeed. He crested the level of stairs that lead to the Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom where he saw Tigress flying in, what appeared to be, slow motion from a cloaked figure, who was twirling two stone maces in her paws. Tigress' body appeared limp and greatly wounded as it flew towards the Dragon Warrior, but he caught her before she could hit the ground in agony.

"Oh no! No! Tigress! Are you alright!" Po shouted. Fear filled his heart seeing the object of his admiration, broken in his paws...

"Heh heh... I'm fine... just in a lot of pain." Tigress grunted and smiled up at Po, her fangs were painted with her own blood. "That little... augh... she packs a punch..."

"Who? Her?" The Dragon Warrior turned his vision up to the Assassin in question, who was standing poised to attack again, but she was hesitating and instead, lowered her combat stance to roll her shoulders and place her hands on her hips in a sassy manner.

"Hey, you're the Dragon Warrior aren't you?" The kitten asked, with the same sinister smile, her own fangs were coated in blood and there were bruises on her cheeks and a slight cut on her cheek. "I can feel your baby power, what type is it anyway? I'm very interested in it."

"My... Power? You mean my chi?" Po frowned, as he slowly lowered Tigress to the ground. "My Power is Awesomeness... My Chi is Gravity..."

"_Genshuku_, huh?" Fu thought and paused... then gulped. "Oh... well that's not good for me. Hmmm... I think I should come back at a later time."

"What?" Po paused himself, a bit shocked.

"N-no..." Tigress grunted and sat up to swallow her own blood and wretched for a second. "D-don't let her escape Po. She... she's a Wu Sister, and she's after Tai-Lung's book."

"A Wu Sister?" The Dragon Warrior took a step back, tripping over the wounded Tigress.

"AUGH!" Tigress roared, as Po fell over onto his back and began barreling back down the very stairs that he rushed up with a demonic fury.

Fu watched the display of skill and felt slightly better about her situation now that Po was out of the picture, but she was still wary of what was going on. She slowly, very slowly, approached the downed Master Tigress and crouched down in front of her.

"Oh Ryoko, I don't like hurting you..." Fu-Mai apologized, placing a paw on Tigress' crimson cheek.

"Eat me..." Tigress growled, maliciously, completely at the mercy of her attacker.

"That's gross..." Fu sighed, and placed her weapons inside her dark cloak and began searching for something. Tigress tried to look inside the feline's cloak to see what she was carrying but her eyes weren't able to see a single thing in the maelstrom of energy that was apparently woven into the very fabric of the black cloak that sat on the feline's shoulders. Tigress expected something sinister, but instead the kitten's paws returned with a long roll of gauze and a wooden container that stunk of medicine. Tigress exhaled deeply, seeing that Fu wasn't interested in mutilating Tigress but truthfully... she wasn't surprised by this.

"Why..." Tigress questioned as she slowly closed her eyes. She drew a quick breathe as Fu-Mai's rough cat tongue began to drag across her open wounds to clean them and flinched when the ice cold ointment touched her bruised flesh.

"Why what, Ryo-koko?" Fu responded, still licking Tigress' deep wounds, much to Tigress' displeasure, before she applied the ointment and bandages to aide her fallen adversary.

"Why … Why do you keep coming back... Hurting me... Then healing me?" She growled as Fu tightened bandages around her arms, feeling like the blood flow in her muscles was being cut off completely. "I'm never going to give you or your sisters that book. It revealed what your organization is... and it's evil so you'll never get my help... ever..." Master Tigress' eyes were locked onto the purple eyes of her medic and enemy, feeling ashamed of herself for losing, then accepting help from someone she considers a threat to her way of life.

"Because we _need_, Setsuna. My baba's book will help us find him so we can take him back to Mama and Aunt Mama." The kitten explained with a smile as she licked Tigress across the nose to clean another wound. Tigress didn't pull away... she'd never admit to it, but this wasn't entirely uncommon. She had fought the Wu Sisters secretly, and been mostly losing for almost five months to defend the tome of Tai-Lung's deepest secrets... one of which, being his real name.

"You need Setsuna because you want to basically make him a slave in your twisted organization. You need him because he's of strong genes... Well you're too late. He's too old, and too dead to be useful." Tigress growled, up at Fu-Mai who stood up to begin chewing on gauze to get the blood out of her mouth and off her fangs. Tigress was hurting inside, not completely from her physical wounds but lying wasn't her strong point and no matter how much she said it to Fu-Mai or her two sisters... it didn't even pretend to sound true.

"Lying isn't cool Ryo-koko." The kitten spat out her gauze. "Mama said that Setsuna is alive. So Setsuna is alive! 'Cuz Mama said so!"

"Your mother doesn't know about the world!" Tigress grunted as she stood up herself so she could place her paws on Fu-Mai's shoulders. "Look... The Dragon Warrior killed, Setsuna months ago... almost a full year ago... So … stop looking for him."

Fu-Mai frowned, "Nooooooooo. I can see it in your eyes that Setsuna is alive. Setsuna is alive! Setsuna _is_ alive! You know it, but you won't say it!"

"I..." Tigress paused. "Stop it! He's dead! He's got to be dead!" Tigress argued somehow trying to convince herself and, shouting at the kitten in front of her. "He's GOT to be dead!"

"Why? Why can't my brother be alive? Why! Because you say so? Mama says he's alive! But mama can't find him! So we need baba's book to find elder brother Setsuna!"

"Why? So he can start mass producing more dirty assassin's who kill their fathers?" Tigress shouted back at Fu.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" Fu argued back as effectively as a nine year old would be capable of. "Mama wants Setsuna back because she misses him!"

Tigress' lips turned up in a snarl, "...The book clearly said that she was going to _kill _him. Po beat you all to it. So leave him alone!" Tigress then pushed Fu away from her, at the very moment where Po's resurfaced over the top of the stairs.

"Tigress I didn't mean to step on you I'm so sorry!" The Dragon Warrior shouted and rolled over onto his back so he could regain his stamina, gasping like a fish out of water. Fu took a large step back, as the Dragon Warrior reappeared and began to remember the massive teal threat that he carried coursing through his body. "It's him... the bad man..." Fu whispered and pulled her cloaked over her head, instantly hiding her face.

"What...?" Tigress stopped.

"What?" Po repeated, turning his head to slowly glance over at Fu-Mai who was making a hasty retreat to The Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom.

"Stay away from Fu..." The assassin whispered, while pressing herself against the trunk of the sacred tree.

"What are you doing?" Tigress snarled, "You mean you'll fight me for three months, but the moment you see the Dragon Warrior you turn your tail and run!"

"Fu doesn't want to fight Force..." The assassin admitted and crouched low, in some attempt to make herself as small and invisible as possible.

"What are you talking about?" Po rolled over to stand up, and held out his hands. "My power isn't all that dangerous, you don't have to be afraid, but you are gunna have to stop hurting my friends."

As Po took a step forward, while trying to be diplomatic, Fu let her fear get the best of her and she snapped.

"STAY BACK!" The kitten shouted and punched one of her fists into the trunk of the peach tree. Both Po and Tigress were floored by the quake that followed after the impact. The short, thin and childish kitten hit the Peach Tree with enough power to quake the very ground under the feet of the Masters, which caused a tidal wave of peach pedals to fall and block sight to her escape.

"W-what? I don't understand?" Tigress was shouting, feeling distressed. "Why? Why run? Why?" She shouted, trying to get a glimpse of Fu-Mai as she escaped, but by the time Tigress' eyes were able to see anything that wasn't pink, Fu-Mai had completely escaped, without a trace. "She's... gone."

"I know..." Po shook his head, and placed a paw on the back of his head trying to think of something cool to say, but his train of thought was being blocked out by his burning fists. "Ah! It's going again!"

Tigress turned her head to Po slowly, who was battling with his own unyielding chi... She wasn't able to understand why people admired _and_ feared Po with such severity... The level of respect the Dragon Warrior can accumulate by being a buffoon was unrealistic but... it was somehow a reality. Was the world... was the world really accepting this type of behavior as being … acceptable? Po was swinging his arms around like they were made of scarabs and small spiders... much to his own dismay. Was he trying to make Tigress laugh? Or had he seriously forgot that his hands will activate and burn with chi whenever he thought about the color '_pink_'. It was hard to believe... especially for someone like Tigress who had to live in the shadow of Tai-Lung, to believe that such disrespect for Kung Fu and it's practice of humble acceptance and silent success could be thrown out so swiftly... Here was the Dragon Warrior, the emperor's gift to martial arts... comically fighting with himself with genuine fear... A living Legend, it was... so … wrong.

So wrong... it _had_ to be right...

As Po argued with his own mind about right and wrong, Tigress began to laugh at him... or rather laugh _with_ him. The show, his life, his right of passage was a large demonstration of what _not_ to do, and still succeed... It was his Panda style that made him unique. He was unconventional, improvised, unorthodox and yet, completely successful. Those types of results couldn't be argued with... and after all the months of pondering and pondering on how... and why this worked... the only answer Tigress could return...?

Laughter.

Tigress laughed for what felt like hours as she watched Po turn off his teal flames by self abuse. He patted off his arms swiftly trying to remove the, apparent, invisible gnomes and the tigers eyes began to fill with tears, while her throat ached with exhaustion. But this show was too good to be spoiled by pain... The greatest being in the world, aside from the emperor himself, who is able to defeat one of the greatest threats to China, but unable to run a mile was here making a monkey of himself specifically for Tigress' own amusement. It was a perfect way to give up everything that she had struggled to become... Slowly, her pained laughter began to cease, around the time that the real Shifu arrived.

"Tigress?" He shouted, running over to his daughter who fell backwards with a sick grin on her face. "What happened! Why are you covered in wounds? Panda! What happened here? PO!"

"Huh? It wasn't me Master. I swear!"

"Tigress?"

"TIGRESS?"

"Oh no! Tigress!" Tigress heard other voices entering her ears... It was her friends, the other Masters... They must have finally recovered from their trances and completed their trials.

"I'm ok... I'm fine... I'm just sleepy... Lay me down to sleep..." Tigress laughed and shut her eyes slowly. No one had an answer to the sudden change in her attitude, but there was no hesitation in getting her back to the Jade Palace. There she could rest and Po would be able to answer some questions...

_**.**_

_**.**_

_Day 9 : Night_

_China – The Valley Below the Bridge_

_._

_._

"Are you kidding...? A rhino? A stinking rhino? No way..." Tetsu spat.

"No, I'm serious. He won the tournament all by himself, and he was the very same Rhino that saved the Valley from the Four Armed Fire Beast, two years later." Mei-Ling was telling stories of the great fighters who came from Sun-Lo and the Li-Da Academy.

"Well I've never heard of him..." Tetsu crossed his arms. "What did he go on to do? Or was he just a country legend?"

"Oh no... He became a world renown legend, he went on to become Master Flying Rhino." Mei-Ling smiled, turning to see the shocked expression on Tetsu's face with a giggle. "You look so surprised."

"Well... no... No." Tetsu straightened up, "Beh. I should have figured... Master Flying Rhino was a revolutionary type of Martial Artists... I read all of his scrolls."

"You?" The mountain cat, spun in her place and began walking backwards. "You've read the Legendary Scrolls of Kung Fu? How?"

"Oh um... Well... I've seen uh... copies of them... Some of the scribes from my home town... knew of and... made extra scrolls... as copies... to be studied." Tetsu stuttered and pieced together a … half believable story that made Mei-Ling question it's validity, but she chose to believe it instead of toss it.

"That's amazing. I never knew other people had read very many of the Legendary Scrolls... How many did you manage to read? I know there are over a thousand, but the core knowledge is in the first thousand scrolls."

"I..." Tetsu paused... knowing that if he revealed that he'd read all the scrolls... "I've read... um... Well I can't remember, I read a few while I was in prison, and some when I was a child and... from time to time."

"A casual reader?" Mei-Ling began to laugh but she tripped over a stone in her path... The cat was tossed backwards, but she was caught by her black bodyguard before she was able to hit the ground. "and you've got fast reflexes." The kitty smiled and purred appreciatively.

"Well I'm not walking backwards for one..." Tetsu admitted, and began looking around their surroundings. "I don't even know where... we... are." His words began to slow down as he quickly realized where he was... He knew _exactly_ where he and Mei-Ling had wandered.

"It's very hard to see down here. But we're under the bridge that used to lead to the Main Trade Route that lead to the Valley of Peace, and the Jade Palace. I think the bridge was destroyed when The Furious Five fought Tai-Lung on this bridge."

"You think so...?" Tetsu whispered to himself, looking around the area... From what he could see, he could remember the exact location where his face skimmed the floor of this moist Valley and the wall of the mountain face that he collided into was still broken where his feet and fist connected. He could recall the fight perfectly...

He was propelled to what he, and they, thought was his doom by Tigress' mighty paws... He had been attacked and constricted by Crane and his rope, and launched into the smokey depths without hope of return, but there was no prior knowledge to what was waiting below... Tai-Lung had no idea it was soft ground waiting for him, or else he would have never needed to exert so much energy on leaping from the base of one mountain face, to the peak of the other. It wasn't a difficult task, but it wasn't a completely necessary one... He could have easily scaled up the wall and attacked the Five like a serial killer from the mist, or decided to invade their dreams to haunt them to their graves... Something inventive... But when his face touched what felt like potting soil, he knew that _The Five _were done for.

If Tetsu had came here probably months earlier, he could probably still find his blood staining the dirt from the wounds he had received from the fierce Master Tigress... but that wasn't the case here.

Tetsu's thoughts of dark nostalgia were interrupted by Mei-Ling propelling him back into the present.

"T-testu. Do you hear voices?"

"Voices?" The black tyrant repeated and tilted his head to one side in an attempt to hear whatever might be going on. Mei-Ling's ears were much larger, but Tetsu had much harder training than she, so he technically had the greater hearing, and could clearly pick up laughter... as if there was some type of celebration going on near by. "Actually... I do."

"What is it? I can't..." Mei-Ling muttered, then paused. "No wait... yes I hear it now... It's... -giggling?"

"Um, yeah, something like that... What do you think is going on?"

"From my experience? It sounds like drinking."

"Alcohol? Down here?" Tetsu protested, but Mei-Ling put her foot down.

"Look- coming from Sun-Lo makes you a brain surgeon in three specific things. _**E**__ating with no teeth, __**S**__aving every dollar you make_, and _**D**__rinking. _So I know what drunks sound like, even if I can't see them."

Tetsu began to laugh, "Right right so... You've still got teeth. How does that qualify on the list."

"Well coming from Sun-Lo also teaches you how to defend those teeth so you don't have to learn the first rule." Mei-Ling responded with a wink, and pushed on into the consuming fog, leaving Tetsu behind to his own thoughts. The black snow leopard laughed and shook his head from side to side.

"Oh, I know I'm just getting into more trouble. Maybe, Shen won't kill me if I have a good story to tell at least."

The two cats followed the voices into the fog for at least seven minutes. The felines, at first, thought they were wandering into some type of elaborate trap set up by a mass murder, or perhaps some type of alternate dimension where fallen soldiers were tortured with feathers and bad haiku's … but what they didn't expect to see was a plethora of alcohol poisoned crocodile bandits, and two sober women.

"Ah, a customer... Come closer, much much closer, I have good things on sale." One of the two females began speaking as Tetsu and Mei-Ling wandered closer to the crowd of drunken gators.

"Wait... These two aren't bandits. Who are they? Do people just walk through here on dates now? What a world..." The other female began complaining, but neither lady would deter the advance of the Palace bound felines.

"Um... What's going on here?" Mei-Ling questioned both females that were sitting on top of boulders that were covered with decorated rugs that looked Indian.

"What's going on?" Responded the first woman, a foreign feline wearing a deep green kimono that exposed some of her cleavage and a large bowl hat that reminded Tetsu and Mei-Ling of a mushroom head, but it managed to conceal her entire face aside from her gentle... and sinister smile. "What's going on? Sales! Extreme Sales! Alcohol so Cheap you can buy two, and still keep your wife happy. You interested in a drink sir?"

Tetsu's cheeks lit up and he held up his paws. "Oh, uh we're not married."

"Not married...?" The white female across from the feline in the green kimono began to speak again. She wasn't wearing a hat, so her face was clear... The whites of her eyes were pure black like that of a demons, but neither Tetsu or Mei-Ling could sense any evil coming from this woman, even when the eyes lying inside the endless pools of black began to glow a bright red with her shouting. "Why aren't you two married? You bring her all the way down here, to this _god-awful_ place, and you expect what? A kiss? Not without commitment you dead beat."

The white wolf began chewing out Tetsu. She wasn't smiling, something like a permanent scowl was present on her face... Her cheeks were painted with red in no particular design, and there was a red streak leading up the woman's white muzzle up into her flowing white hair. Aside from the color red, there was nothing else decorate about the white wolf who was enjoying large amounts of powerful sake next to the feline.

"We're not dating." Mei-Ling stepped up to defend Tetsu. "He's just my body guard."

"Is that what you little girls call them now? Psh..." The white wolfess grunted and tossed back another drink of her sake. "God that's good... More."

"More money." The feline responded, and without much else conversation the white wolf tossed a few yaun coins into a pot in front of the bar tending feline, and she responded with offering a medium sized bottle of steaming sake to her patron, who immediately poured a glass and downed the powerful drink.

"So... I'm assuming all these guys have had too much to drink?" Mei-Ling asked half-nervously to the two mysterious persons infront of her... She wasn't aware that people actually lived in the fog, none the less ran a business down here.

"Probably... But they still have money, and I have pleeenty of supply." The feline replied with a grin, tilting her hat slightly to reveal one eye to Mei-Ling and Tetsu, mostly to get a good look at the two cats in front of her. After a peek, she lowered her hat and began snickering. "Can't see why you're not dating a tall drink like him. Have you seen his muscles?"

"M-me? I... uh." Tetsu stammered, but he was interrupted by the wolf.

"His muscles... God, I'm tired of men... and muscles. It's all their interested in... Big Muscles... Big Muscles, Big Crotch, Big Weapon, it's all about the size... Well you know what?" The wolf complained.

"What?" The bartender asked idly.

"It doesn't matter... Size... _doesn't_ … matter. Because they're all the same size." The wolf finished and tossed back another hot drink. "God, I can't get enough of these... Is this the same drink?"

"Yes." Her bartender responded swiftly.

"More." Laughed the wolf.

"More Money."

"Take it, slave driver."

"It's a pleasure."

Tetsu and Mei-Ling watched the exchange with jaws dropped, they weren't able to understand exactly what was going on down in the fog, but they did know that alcohol was bad, and they weren't interested.

"Look, I don't mean to … well, be a bother. But I'm wondering what you two are selling alcohol to bandits and... practically poisoning them. I heard laughter before I got here, but by the time I arrived, these guys were completely blacked out."

"Alcohol does that to you." Tetsu added, poking a drunken croc with his foot.

"Only _a lot_ of alcohol does it... I once knew a guy who blacked out on alcohol."

"We _all_ do-" The wolf interrupted, "What makes your drunk idiot so important?"

"Well..." Mei-Ling scoffed, "If you must know. He stripped himself naked..."

"And?" The bartender cut in.

"He straddled an outhouse seat in the buff while vomiting." Mei-Ling continued.

"I've seen a thousand drunk men hug a seat to vomit..." The wolf sighed, and took another drink of her alcohol.

"And when I asked his age..." Mei-Ling paused to build tension. "He told me '_Zero to Sixty'_."

Tetsu paused for a moment, as the white wolf and the bar tending cat began laughing out loud. "Wait... _Zero to Sixty?_ What in the hell does that mean?"

"I'm not entirely sure." Mei-Ling shrugged her shoulders. "But he kept complaining about dying, and couldn't keep his eyes open if I nailed them that way."

"That's why I'll never drink alcohol. I hope my father wasn't an alcoholic... I'd hate to get addicted to it." Tetsu replied, looking about the group that was recovering from their laughing.

"Honey-" The wolf began, swilling around a drink in her paw. "I hate men... but if men are good for _anything,_ it's lifting the kegs of alcohol, and holding them above my head."

Mei-Ling coughed. "Whoa... You _hate_ men."

"She hates men." The bar tender answered swiftly. "She'll go on for years about it."

"Well why?" Mei-Ling asked, which probably would have jettisoned a long conversation that would have spiraled into a 'Man Hate' rally if not for Tetsu cutting in.

"Um... actually, Mei-Ling, shouldn't we be trying to get out of here? I mean... I'm sure the history of these two croons is fantastic but we need to get out of the fog before we pass out from the lack of air."

"Huh?" Mei-Ling spun slowly to face Tetsu, looking up into his eyes at the slight worry and confusion that plagued his face. "Are you alright?"

"Me? Yes, I'm fine, but the excess moisture in the air is getting to me." Tetsu explained, praying to the heavens that the humidity wouldn't make him sweat off his disguise.

"He's lying..." Itsuse snorted while lifting her glass up to her lips.

Sa-Chi began to laugh as Itsuse rose from her rock, her seven white tails swirled behind her like there was an infinite breeze directing their sway. The white wolf lowered her cup and let it fall freely from her hand, only to be caught by Sa-Chi's greedy paw. Itsuse wasn't the type of woman to tolerate anything from a male that she didn't like, especially not a young male like Tetsu, and just being in his presence revealed that there was something false about him, but she couldn't immediately determine what due to her intoxication. However, she was still sober enough to stand, and shout.

"He's LYING!" The wolf almost howled as she directed an accusing claw at Tetsu. The fog that surrounded the group parted completely as the black snow leopard was put on the spot. When the smoke cleared, the dirt under his feet was revealed finally. At first, Mei-Ling and Tetsu had thought that the dirt in the foggy valley was merely soft because it was constantly moist. They had no idea that the dirt under their feet wasn't actually dirt.

Mei-Ling screamed once she noticed that she was surrounded on all sides by night crawlers, worms and beetles. She and Tetsu had been crunching bugs and squashing insects under their feet for hours and had no idea until the fog had finally cleared. Even Sa-Chi hiked her tail up around her hips when she noticed the unsavory landscape that she had decided to place a temporary business on. Mei-Ling dove to Sa-Chi's rock and held on for dear life to escape the leeches and ticks that were attempting to attach themselves to her feet, but oddly, the insects weren't able to fasten themselves to Tetsu... no one noticed this better than Itsuse.

"What are you hiding from her?" The seven tailed wolf growled while adjusting her stance to maintain balance.

"I-I'm not hiding anything! What's all this for?" Tetsu defended himself, stepping back and crunching insects under his feet as he did. "What's with all these bugs? Why are they here?"

"Why...?" Itsuse turned her muzzle downward, slowly cascading her glare across the floor made of carrion insects. "They belong to my worthless husband... He can't even keep a simple hole clean..." The cleared her throat and coughed as though the very thought of her _husband_ made her sick to her stomach.

"Well if you're upset with him, you don't need to take your anger out on me! I'm just a bodyguard!"

"You LIAR!" Itsuse snapped at Tetsu, her lip curled back to reveal her beautiful ivory fangs that appeared to be steaming with visible malice. "There's something more going on with you, but I can't put my finger on it... But I know you're lying … about something."

Sa-Chi was partially laughing at the court case going on before her very eyes. She half agreed with Itsuse, knowing that Tetsu wasn't telling the complete truth, but on the other hand she knew that he probably was an innocent man, that was hiding or lying to protect himself from some kind of harm... None the less, it had nothing to do with her, nor was there any money involved and if the situation could be solved swiftly so the fog would return and hide the beetles, she would do it.

"You're drunk, Itsuse. Leave the poor guy alone and bring the fog back." Sa-Chi, poured the wolf a _free_ drink to redirect the attention away from man hating, and back towards spending money.

"I'm not drunk enough to miss a lying, cheating, disgusting, shiftless, abusive, gambling..." Itsuse's rant came to a quick end as she accepted the drink and lifted her seven tails so she could resume sitting. The fog of the valley began to return to where it had been cleared. But the haze couldn't cloud the fact that they all were sitting on a breeding ground for carrion beetles, and the bandits that had passed out from alcohol poisoning had probably been completely consumed by this point.

"Well... maybe he's not all bad..." The wolf apologized and indulged herself in another drink, passing over the yuan that Sa-Chi was silently asking for.

"That's what I like to hear." Sa-Chi grinned and pocketed the coin, then slowly turned to Mei-Ling who had her claws sunk into Sa-Chi's rock like it was a scratching post. "Hey... you going to straddle my rock all day, or are you going to buy something?"

"I.. uh... um... what?" Mei-Ling's eyes fluttered as her brain came back to consciousness. She was partially embarrassed that she was a well renowned Kung-Fu Warrior but she was still fearful and evasive of bugs, insects and creepy-crawlies of all kinds. "Sorry about that... I uh..."

"Hate bugs?" Sa-Chi added, tilting her hat to hide her eyes.

"Yeah..." The mountain cat cleared her throat and slowly made her way back to Tetsu who was standing still, looking confused and nervous. "But we're not interested in purchasing anything. We'd just like to know the fastest way out so we can get to the Valley of Peace."

"The Valley of Peace...? That will cost you." The Iriomote grinned under her cap, and held out a small gourd that jingled with coins when it moved.

"Pay...? Pay? For directions? All we need is a cardinal direction!" Mei-Ling argued, but Sa-Chi wasn't giving in. She was a hardened merchant that knew how to haggle the best possible price for anything, however she wasn't counting on Itsuse to blow the deal. Sa-Chi was almost pushed off her rock by Itsuse's powerful tails slapping her side, and knocking away her hat.

"H-hey!" Sa-Chi gasped and caught her hat before it hit the ground, revealing her long purple hair in the process.

"Look, not everyone has to pay for every-freaking-thing on this earth, alright?" Itsuse grunted and beckoned for Mei-Ling and her bodyguard to come closer. "Look kids, I can teleport you almost anywhere you want to go. I don't know this '_Valley of Peace'_ but if it's got even a shred of darkness or shadow, I can get you there."

"Wha?" Tetsu was shocked, he was keeping quiet to prevent from hindering his efforts of escaping, but he was amazed by such a power. "But how? Do you have _chi?_"

"Chi...?" Mei-Ling repeated after her bodyguard, partially confused as how one could _have_ chi, instead of summon it.

"_Have?_" Itsuse laughed and stood up again, and adjusted her clothes. "I'm responsible for one particular type of it."

"Amazing... but how?" Tetsu again spoke, stepping closer to the white and crimson wolf, as her body began to shimmer with a deep purple aura that reminded him of a power that he'd seen before.

"It's called _Kuro Yabun Chi, _or for children... 'Dark Night Chi'." Itsuse shut her eyes for only a moment while she was talking, and when she reopened them, they had become empty... blank, almost as if someone had stolen the eyes from her head when no one was looking. The red tattoos that decorated her body had shifted colors from red, to purple and were glowing brightly like burning stars against her white fur.

"Whoa that's... incredible!" Mei-Ling gasped and took a step back, quickly clutching Tetsu's muscular arms to make herself feel safer. But Tetsu didn't even notice the vice-like grip that was strangling his arm. He was witnessing the very source of a special chi, demonstrating her power in front of him. He wasn't too sure if she should believe it, or even trust it, but he was certain that he was amazed by Itsuse and this _Dark Night_ chi and wanted to know more.

"Grab one of my tails kids," Itsuse commanded, "but if you pull out a single hair, I'll drop you off in a dark tunnel with no light or hope of escape. Got it?"

"I won't pull anything." Mei-Ling confidently spoke and took a hold of one of Itsuse's white plumes that was coursing with purple energy.

"Uh..." Tetsu paused for a moment, hesitating to grab the lady's tail. He wasn't very nervous about getting stuck somewhere dark with no hope of escape, he'd been there and done that already, he was more worried about touching white fur with his black paws... the humidity could possibly strip his disguise and he'd be in the Valley of Peace, completely cut off from Tai-Shen's help... and he had no idea where his adrenaline pills were.

"You gunna stand there like a bump on an ass, or are you going to grab my tail?" Itsuse growled at the hesitating snow leopard, forcing him to finally leap to a decision and take one of her tails in his mighty paw. The wolf grinned and turned her attention to Sa-Chi who was popping the lid off the Giant gourd that she constantly had totting around with her. "And where do you think you're going miss?"

"Who me?" Sa-Chi managed to say before she was snatched in Itsuse's tails like a Venus fly-trap. "Whoa, let me go! Let me go!"

After Sa-Chi had been snagged, she didn't even have time to recap her gourd. She, Itsuse, Tetsu and Mei-Ling had vanished and moved at the speed of light thanks to the wolf's mastery and control of her own chi. Leaving the uncapped gourd alone in the Valley of Fog and insects... Slowly, the fog was closing around the gourd and reassuming it's complete control over the air of the Valley, but as it approached the gourd, there was a bright flash of teal energy. The fog immediately receded from the gourd like a hand that had been burned by wild fire... The gourd, like the others, didn't stay for much longer... After the fog began to advance for a second attempt at capturing the pure air surrounding it, the large empty jug jumped into the air like it was possessed and tunneled into the dirt to disappear. The hole that remained after the container escaped, screamed in pain and quickly began filling with carrion beetles, insects and creepy-crawlies...


	5. Chapter 5

.

.

**Tetsu**

**.**

**V**

**.**

**.**

_Day 9 : Midnight_

_China – The Valley of Peace_

_._

_._

"Oh you big babies... It wasn't that bad."

Itsuse was the only woman left standing from their rapid travel to the Valley of Peace. Tetsu, the black snow leopard, Mei-Ling, the mountain cat, and even Sa-Chi, the iriomote, all were retching as though their inner organs wanted to escape, but none of the three puked their insides out, which was good because they were standing in the middle of the training hall located a few hundred steps from the Jade Palace and slightly further from the Valley itself. Itsuse swept her tails from side to side, waiting for the other three to rise back to their feet so they could thank her for the free trip, but the white lupe was happier to be away from the Fissure of Fog under the fallen rope bridge. The insects were disgusting, and her ethereal husband was twice as annoying.

Secretly, being the best trained and conditioned for this type of thing, Tetsu was the first to regain his composure and sniffed as though he had a cold. "Gah..." He muttered and coughed again. "For-forgive me miss... I wasn't prepared for all that energy... Did we become spirits or something for that trip?"

Itsuse folded her arms and slowly tilted her head in Tetsu's direction, "Now what kind of goddess would I be, if I turned you into a spirit, _just_ to take a short flight?"

"You're a goddess?" Mei-Ling stood up finally, grasping onto Tetsu's back and began half-crawling up him so she could stand properly. "But you're so small, aren't gods and deities towering, all powerful ethereal beings?"

Sa-Chi managed to get onto her own feet and coughed once to clear her throat like Tetsu did earlier, "Yeah Itsuse, you never mentioned being a thousands year old, ancient spirit... that enjoys alcohol."

"Honey- who _doesn't _enjoy alcohol?" The white goddess laughed and fanned her tails, then turned to Mei-Ling. "Well technically, I _am_ a thousand year old... towering … all powerful … blah blah. But I, like all gods, can take on physical forms. It's so we can play in the world amongst the mortals, and enjoy in earthly pleasures and … uh... stuff."

"Earthly pleasures...?" Tetsu half paused, "You mean like... sex?"

The very mention of sex made Sa-Chi's ears perk, expecting to get some type of gossip, and Mei-Ling released Tetsu's shoulders, not really knowing what to expect to hear from her mysterious bodyguard.

"Well..." Itsuse laughed madly, "Actually, I was referring to Alcohol, but sex is nice too." Her grin quickly burned into a snarl as she stepped up to Tetsu and drilled a claw into his chest. "Don't-be-getting-any-ideas!" She growled, stabbing at him on each word.

"H-hey! I didn't mean anything by it! And I thought you _hate _men!" Tetsu backed off, almost tripping over Mei-Ling who was too busy being worried and interested to think to move, when Tetsu began retreating.

"ME?" Itsuse laughed once more, changing that snarl back into pleasant and cheerful grin. "Darling, only the dead, can have sex with the dead. Or those who have mastered _Supirittochi_." Itsuse let the knowledge boil in Tetsu and Mei-Ling's brains as she slowly began to advance on Sa-Chi, was also jogging her brain to remember exactly what '_Spirit Chi' _did, and when she felt Itsuse's hand land on her tail, she remembered.

"Gah! Off of me you witch! I'll get you your alcohol, but you're not doing- - - _THAT_ with me!" The merchant backed away and reached behind her back to seize her gourd, but her hand attacked pure air and swung violently, trying to get a hold of what she wasn't carrying. "GAH! Where's my gourd? Where is... it's... in the Valley of Fog... DAMN!"

"What?" Itsuse paused, pulling her hands back. "No gourd... does that mean...?"

"YES!" Sa-Chi snarled, "NO – ALCOHOL!"

"Oh..." The goddess halted completely, feeling a bit foolish for not allowing Sa-Chi to bring her belongings with her when they traveled. "Well, you can pay me back for this three person trip, in three easy payments of-"

"NO!" Sa-Chi took a step away from Itsuse who began grinning and blinking seductively. "I'll put a seal on every inch of my body, just to keep you at bay! I have money... I'll buy you some drinks instead alright?"

The wolf shrugged, agreeing to alcohol instead of same-sex intercourse and turned to Tetsu and Mei-Ling who were pondering the world on their shoulders. The goddess exhaled deeply and rolled her eyes like she was watching two kids trying to determine the difference between the worlds '_Their' _and '_They're'_.

"_Supirittochi _literally means '_Spirit Energy'_ kids... It's what you _HAVE_ to know in order to communicate with the dead and other unliving spirits. Why else do you think monks and priests spend all their time _meditating_ and mostly in private? There's normally a horny spirit somewhere that they can smell..."

Tetsu gasped out loud, "AUGH! Are you kidding? Really! REALLY! Old people... try to... wait... no way!"

Itsuse rose an eyebrow to glare at Tetsu, "You calling me a lair? What old man or woman do you know, that _didn't_ spend all their time meditating?"

Tetsu was silent, but Itsuse continued anyway, not expecting a real answer.

"If the person is over the age of seventy... Which most monks are, they either do one of two things constantly... Either meditate, which is _Ghost_ for 'Booty Call' or 'Massive Orgy' or they constantly drink, because they've had too much meditation rape and the spirits tell them that being drunk is another godly pleasure that is often overlooked."

Tetsu wrinkled his brow, excessively worried about the truth being shouted at him... Could... she be right? The two oldest people that Tetsu knew were the late Master Oogway and his foster father, Shifu. Shifu _did_ spend a lot of time meditating and Oogway was hardly ever sober enough to not be found upside down ontop of his staff... Was he also meditating when he was drunk? And if they really were meditating... were there ghost women _EVERYWHERE? _

"Hey!" Sa-Chi shouted, redirecting attention to herself as she began writing a seal incantation on herself, and showing off that she had already drawn two 'Words of Binding' on her cheeks, somewhat like how Itsuse has red tattoo's below her eyes, but those were for decoration, Sa-Chi's temporary markings were specifically for warding and protection. "Is – there – a place – to get – a drink – around – here!" Sa-Chi shouted while drawing another symbol on her chest, between her partially exposed cleavage.

"Um..." Tetsu shook his head, trying to expunge the vision of Shifu and spirit women. "There's... the... Noodle Shop, they sell after dark but... It's mostly milk and stuff, I don't know if he actually sells alcohol, I... uh, don't drink alcohol."

"Me either?" Mei-Ling half agreed, trying to be apart of the action, but she knew she was too far off topic and not well enough educated in the Valley to be of help.

"Milk is fine." Itsuse nodded with a grin.

"_Gyuunyuu?" _Sa-Chi laughed at the thought, "I thought you were a hard drinker, not a little pup _Itsuse..._" Sa-Chi intentionally began prodding at the god, because she knew she couldn't be touched with so many seals being painted on her body.

"What are you talking about?" The goddess, brushed off the insults and approached Sa-Chi. "Anything from a tit – tastes great!"

Sa-Chi visibly retched again, and jumped away from the goddess as she extended a brave paw to rest on the merchants shoulder. "D-don't touch! Let's just go... I'll buy your steenking milk!"

Mei-Ling waved a hand to get attention, "Hey? Hey? What about us?"

"What about you?" Sa-Chi scoffed, "I don't have my gourd, so I can't broke you of all your yuan... And you're in the _Valley of Peace,_ where you want to be. So our business is done, but if I find you tomorrow when my gourd gets here, I'll make sure to sell to you, first, and your bodyguard."

Itsuse and the painted Sa-Chi opened large double-doors that lead to the Valley and vanished down the stairs, leaving Tetsu and Mei-Ling alone to themselves. Mei-Ling smiled, here she was in the Valley of Peace finally, thus leaving her mission to one or two more simple objectives of finding Master Shifu, and presenting her case. It would be simple but... the sky was black, it was midnight... The news would have to at least wait until tomorrow.

"Hey, let's get a room." Mei-Ling spun Tetsu around to smile up into his eyes. "The beds here would probably be more comfortable than the ones in Sun-Lo's Academy, don't you think?"

"Um..." Tetsu wasn't able to generate words, even as Mei-Ling pulled him by his large arms down into the Valley...

_**.**_

_**.**_

_Day 10 : Morning_

_China – The Jade Palace_

_._

_._

_* ! DONG ! *_

The morning gong rang, like it always did, and much to Shifu's surprise, all six of his students exited their rooms and flooded into the hallway. Standing tall at attention, saluting and announcing - -

"Good Morning, Master!"

A bright smile was on Shifu's face this morning. The six of them were all awake, attentive, and brimming with energy. Everyone one of his students was smiling. Viper's coat looked especially shiney this morning. The thin feathers on the top of Crane's head were frilled like he was feeling unshaven and rugged today. Monkey's fur was combed and very clean looking, and even smelt good too. All four of Mantis' arms were in the air like he was a super hero instead of doing a proper salute like he normally did. Master Po was smiling wide, as well as Master Tigress, as if the two of them had a dirty secret to hide, but none the less... it looked like the start of a great day. And even more importantly, Shifu could see the brightly glowing auras that surrounded all six of his successful students... They had all completed the trial of their _Mind's Eye_ and in less than a day. It was record breaking, and thus made today even _more_ special.

"Good Morning everyone. I'm glad to see all of you are in what looks like _better_ than perfect health this morning." Shifu was holding his wooden flute behind his back, as he spoke, but it looked like not a single of them even cared. He'd stuck them across the knuckles, neck, back and butt before, which could put them on edge even on a good day, but today, or this morning must be a _fantastic one. _

"Is there anything someone would like the share?" The red panda asked, waving the flute to allow all of them to lower their paws.

"Oh no Master, nothing to discuss." Master Tigress spoke up, partially giggling. Shifu tilted his head to one side.

"Hmm?" He can't remember the last time he heard Tigress laugh, especially not like _a girl._ "Are you alright Tigress?"

"Yes, Master." Master Tigress chuckled and inhaled to restore her composure. "I'm just... well, in a good mood."

"Yeah, me too." Viper grinned.

"Yep, same." Mantis rolled his arms. "HA!" He flexed again, like a super hero, unintentionally making himself shimmer with a brown aura.

"Mantis! Not in the Palace." Shifu waved his cane to get Mantis to calm down, which the short green warrior heeded to by bowing and lowering his growing energy levels. "Well... I'm very happy to see you all so energized and in great health. So for today, there will be no formal training, just attempt to get in touch with your chi, and work towards understanding how to summon, command, direct and extinguish your energy, like Master Mantis here did only a moment ago."

"Yes, MAN-TISSSS!" Mantis saluted again with all four arms and again lit himself on fire with his brown chi as he posed.

"Mantis! Mantis! **Not-in-the-Palace!**" Shifu tapped his foot as the _impatient_ student again was forced to lower his power level.

Monkey chuckled and Viper laughed as Shifu shook his head and waved a paw. "You are all dismissed. Just don't destroy any of the Palace or the Training Hall, repairs would take months."

"Um," Po finally spoke, "Speaking of repairs Master... What about that hole we were supposed to close the other day? Isn't that at threat to the Valley or something?"

"It's is, but not a very large one. It would be foolish to leave it open so it could possibly flood or be traveled through by brazen bandits, but I don't think anything ill will come of it today. Tomorrow however, you all will be tasked with using your chi to close up that hole. So train yourselves well today." With those words, Shifu dismissed all his students and turned to leave the student dormitories.

"Um, Master?" Tigress spoke up, stopping everyone in their tracks. "Why such the happy mood this morning? It's not really like you?"

"It's not like you to be smiling and laughing either, Tigress." Shifu grinned, "But if you must know. I've been meditating is all, and I can say that it's been rather enjoyable."

"Well, whatever that means." Tigress laughed, "I suppose we'll just see you some time later on today Master?"

"Perhaps, perhaps not. A Master's work is never done, and I must return to meditation." Shifu didn't stick around for much longer, leaving the six all to themselves. Where Po held up a paw, pointing behind his back towards his favorite place in the Palace- the kitchen.

"Anyone hungry? I'm in the mood for making a totally awesome meal that I _just_ thought of last night!" The Dragon Warrior asked and smiled brightly getting a chorus of nods and confirming hums from the group.

"Meal idea? In between me being injured, and you waking up?" Tigress asked, stepping up to Po and placing a paw on his shoulder. "How ever did you manage that?"

"I had _The Noodle Dream_!" Po declared proudly as he placed both his large paws on his hips.

"Huh? _Noodle Dream?_" Mantis laughed, "Is that anything like a wet dream? Because that was something like my trial last night."

"Oh that's gross!" Viper wanted to hiss, but she was only capable of laughing after being presented with such a ludicrous theory of Mantis' _Mind's Eye. "_That's not _really_ how your dream went... Is it, Mantis?"

"Oh no, no. It was much more sweaty and enduring than the simple act of spanking butts." Mantis laughed. The noticed everyone was staring at him like he had three necks and five heads. "What? You don't believe what the _Mind's Eye_ tells you? Come on, it's a funny story, I'll tell you on the way to the kitchen, then Po can tell us about this _Noodle Dream_ because when I hear he'd been diddling the noodle's, I'm turning him into a outhouse fragrance cake."

_**.**_

_**.**_

_Day 10 : Morning_

_China – The Valley of Peace_

_._

_._

The warm glow of light had been beating Tetsu in the face for at least ten minutes and it still wasn't able to throttle the large man from his bed. He hadn't done anything other than heavily sleep from the moment he touched the soft bed. His only concern was that he had to share his bed with Mei-Ling and didn't know if she would snore in her sleep or possibly brush against him and peel away his disguise, but when he was able to sleep on something that didn't feel like tree bark or cold stone, he didn't care. A proper bed roll back at Tai-Shen's hide out would be heaven...

The sunlight beaming into their room didn't even manage to stir Tetsu in the least, he was used to heat, cold, light and dark, nothing would wake him... except for Mei-Ling...

'_Day dreams...'_

He could hear a beautiful voice.

'_I fell asleep amid the flowers...'_

It was heavenly.

_'For a couple of hours...'_

Could that be Mei-Ling?

'_On a beautiful-daaaay...'_

Was Mei-Ling really singing? A Kung-Fu warrior... singing?

_'Day dreams...' _

He heard her voice again.

_'I dream of you amid the flowers...'_

It was melodic and beautiful.

_'For a couple of hours...'_

So... wonderful.

'_On a beautiful-daaaay...'_

Was she singing about... him? Tetsu wasn't sure, but he couldn't stay in bed after hearing such a sweet song. It somewhat, reminded him of singing he'd heard when he was a kitten but... it was so many years ago he couldn't even remember _who_ might have sang it. His eyes slowly began to open while he pushed himself up out of bed with his strong arms only to be greeted with Mei-Ling gasping in shock.

"Ah! Well... uh... good morning!" The mountain cat began giggling loudly and uncontrollably. Tetsu couldn't understand it at first, but such a comfortable nights sleep had put his entire anatomy at ease, and one particular part of him was always awake, whenever he was completely relaxed.

Without an ounce of hesitation, Tetsu practically back flipped out of bed and ran to the porch-side bathroom that was provided for the room he and Mei-Ling shared. It was his luck that Mei-Ling was a simple, but extravagant girl, so she didn't mind spending a lot of money on an fancy hotel room for the two of them. Tetsu was thankful for the bath that was sitting out waiting for him, but he was completely embarrassed about displaying his morning wood to Mei-Ling, it was complete un-bodyguard like behavior. There wasn't a screen, curtain for Tetsu to hide behind, just a small rice paper wall that was movable and in three pieces simply to block view... It was mostly for women when they changed clothes, but it was provided to distract onlookers from watching people bathe when they stayed at this particular hotel. But instead of pointing the wall out to the alleys, Tetsu had pointed it towards the room and Mei-Ling was still giggling.

"Hey, I'm sorry!" She apologized, trying to straighten herself up. "I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to... you know... see it."

"Don't... mention it... It was my fault. I... should have... rolled over or... something." Tetsu choked out, unable to really deal with such white hot embarrassment. His face felt like it was melting off, and he was sweating profusely... it was possibly his worst nightmare. Tai-Shen had specifically warned Tetsu about how his disguise could be erased... Normal water couldn't take off his black ink, but bodily fluids could... And from sweating, Tai-Lung could see small contrails of his black ink cascading across the waters surface in streams that resembled a camp fire burning out. His disguise was falling off, and if Mei-Ling saw that he was Tai-Lung... who knows what would happen...

Tetsu's heart almost stopped beating when he saw one of Mei-Ling's paws grasp the edge of the rice paper wall that was put up to keep her from looking . . . she would surely see his grey fur under the shield of black ink-like dust... His disguise would be blown, his identity would be found out and he'd be completely screwed, still not able to fight to defend himself... As he saw her ears start to crest over the edge, he knew there was only one way to keep her from looking him – in the face...

"Look, I just want to apo—lo—g..." The mountain cat's concern was genuine, and she was willing to apologize to Tetsu for staring him in the crotch when he had clearly just got up. Mostly all men wake up able to knock down buildings in the morning, and clearly Tetsu was no exception, and she should have realized that but being in the Valley, so close to her old friend, she didn't think much about how to approach a sleeping predator. But now... now it wasn't really an accident, or not a complete accident. Tetsu was standing up in the tub, with a bar of soap clutched in one paw, and the very object of accusation in his other paw.

"Gah!" Tetsu pretended to be embarrassed for a second time, but it did work. Mei-Ling quickly ducked back into the hotel room and covered her eyes and tried to cool off her hot, blushing cheeks. It was at that point that she decided that she couldn't stay in the room with Tetsu for a while, it wouldn't be healthy for their business relationship.

"Uh...T-tet...Tetsu?" Mei-Ling shouted out to the porch, where Tai-Lung was coming to reality very quickly.

"Y-yes?" Tetsu was trying his best to sound flustered and troubled. "I'm so sorry!"

"It's... it's fine! It's fine! I'm going to run some errands! Uh... I'll be back in a … Few hours! A Few hours! BYE!"

Tetsu could hear the door to the room slam shortly after she said, '_Bye'_.

"Oh thank the emperor..." Tetsu exhaled deeply... and sat back down in the tub. He was finally alone... or partially, there was still the matter of the alley directly to his left, but at that wasn't much of a problem really. Nothing but brazen bandits and drunkards would hang out in alleys, and this early in the morning... There wouldn't be anyone, not even children or early birds, in the alley. So he was free to bathe as thoroughly as he wanted. The black snow leopard again, exhaled deeply in satisfaction that Mei-Ling was finally out of his hair for a little while. It was more difficult putting up a ruse than he originally predicted. Tai-Shen made it sound so simple and so easy, but in truth, being someone that you're not is a task that hardly even _he_ could achieve, and Tetsu was only a step away from being the Dragon Warrior once in his life.

He poured a hot cup of water over his head, to wash away the sweat and leave his disguise pox marked all across his fur. Small pockets of gray fur began to shine through, as he could see in a small metal mirror that was conveniently placed near him, but it wasn't enough for anyone who may be passing by to discover that Tetsu is Tai-Lung, or at least not without critically thinking about it and at least being Tetsu, Tai-Lung would never have to admit to flashing anyone.

Today is looking good.

_**.**_

_**.**_

_Day 10 : Morning_

_China – The Jade Palace_

_._

_._

"So there I was... Surrounded on all sides... There was no way out, and more coming towards me by the second. I swear, I was out numbered at least three hundred to one!" Mantis was standing on top of his best friends shoulder, spinning a manly yarn of his _Mind's Eye._ An epic tale of how he had to defend himself against the vicious onslaught of hundreds of ravenous warriors that wanted Mantis to never wake up.

"Really? Mantis?" Tigress laughed and tilted her chair backwards to get comfortable. "Three hundred women? All after you? And they're not your wives? Why do I find this story to be far-fetched?"

"No really! It happened!" Mantis waved all four of his strong arms around, as though the quantity mattered. "Listen! They were approaching on all sides... Glaring at me with hungry sexual eyes... Their mouths were wet with slobber from their hunger outweighing their rational thought! I thought I was a goner! I thought I was going to be vanquished by this vast army! I thought they were going to swallow me whole!"

Monkey laughed into his hands, "Yeah Mantis, like that's what you _didn't_ want to happen."

"Shhh!" Crane shushed his friends, "I want to hear where this crock of fantasy is going."

Viper chuckled at the adventure Mantis' _Mind's Eye_ must have put before him. She wasn't too sure if he was telling the truth or not, but it was entertaining to hear to say the least. The room hushed itself as Mantis stepped forward to jump onto the table while Po was filling bowls with steaming noodles and vegetables.

"So I know what you're thinking..." Mantis continued, "_'Mantis, you couldn't have gotten out with your life!' _Well I DID! And how? I used my greatest weapon, that had saved me from hundreds of battles in my youth."

"And what's that?" Tigress asked, genuinely interested in the answer.

"My fascinating and endless knowledge of the female mind!" Mantis concluded, holding up all four arms again in a super hero pose. "Yes! It was my mind and it's vast library of the female concsious that saved me from certain doom."

"Oh bull." Monkey laughed, "These _Dream girls_ were conquered by your superior knowledge of their reading patterns and hair care secrets?"

Viper joined into the laughter, "You didn't know that's a woman's only weakness? If a man were to discover what my favorite flower was, I would have no choice but to bow down to him and surrender myself to his _vast knowledge_."

Mantis rose a brow, feeling the sarcasm pouring forward. "You don't believe? Mantis is half MAN and half GOD!" The short green warrior posed again and held his hands out to grope at the air.

"Oh get real1" Tigress swept a paw at Mantis in an attempt to knock him off the table, but the Master dodged it easily and held up his hands.

"Alright, alright I was kidding. I admit it, I was kidding." Mantis laughed and cleared his throat. "I … actually had to return to the point in my life where I realized that I wasn't invulnerable."

"Huh?" Master Crane clapped his beak shut. "You? You thought you were invisible? You of all people know that life is fragile..."

"Yeah yeah but... that was when I was a bit younger... Probably twenty nine four years ago... or longer." Mantis laughed. "I was captured by bandits because I was too hasty to take advice or directions from anyone."

"Oh, you mean the secret of Patience?" Po served noodles to the last bowl and set down the giant stock pot to take a seat and join the conversation. "

"Uh, yeah... But Patience isn't a secret Po... Wait, why are you calling it a secret anyway?" Mantis scratched his head with one of his four pincers.

Po squinted his eyes and zoomed his vision in on the green hero. "Hey... wait, I get it now... "

"Get what?" Mantis turned his head to one side. "What? Get-what?" He was quickly losing his patience, secretly.

"Guys, doesn't Mantis look different to you?" Po announced, pointing at Mantis like he was the main attraction at a freak show.

"Um..." Viper half laughed, "I... guess. But Mantis is always looking funny since he doesn't wear pants."

"Well ex-cuuuuse me, Missy." Mantis stuck out his tongue that summoned a giggle from the green snake.

Crane turned to preen his feathers, "I don't see a change, Mantis has been Mantis for as long as I've known him."

Monkey lifted his head from the table to examine his best pal. "Hey wait... there _is_ something different about you Mantis."

Mantis spun to glare at Monkey, "Well spit it out man! There's no time for games!"

"Uh... what ever happened to patience?" Monkey smiled, trying to feign confidence.

"What ever happened to _not_ _jerking me around! _What is wrong? Is it a blemish? Boil? Pupil?"

"You mean pimple?" Monkey coughed.

"I HAVE A PIMPLE!" Mantis released Monkey's face to fall back to the kitchen table and onto his back, spreading his eight appendages out like he'd been ran over by a runaway rickshaw.

"No no no!" Tigress finally stood up, "It's not a pimple Mantis. You don't feel different at all? I thought you may have noticed, with all the super hero posing you've been doing lately."

Mantis opened his eyes, "It appears my _Lying Still for a Long-Time Technique _fails to be effective against you fellow Masters."

Tigress rolled her eyes, "That shouldn't even work on children, Mantis... Now get up and hold up your arms."

The other Masters all watched as Mantis followed Tigress' directions, raising his four strong arms in the air, trying desperately, _desperately _not to flex... even though he _really_ wanted to.

"Feel any different?" Tigress asked, and sighed as Mantis shook his head from side to side with a '_No'. _So instead the leader of the Furious Five turned her attention to her friends. "Well... anyone? See anything different about Master Pervert?"

"Oh oh! I do!" Po rose his hand and waved it furiously in the air like he was still in grade school.

"Er... Yes, Po?" Tigress giggled, calling on the Dragon Warrior in a tone that wasn't normally her own.

"Mantis, changed his name to _Master Pervert!_" The Dragon Warrior announced while shoveling noodles into his face. "Righhhht?" He mumbled past food.

Tigress rolled her eyes and laughed out loud. "He's got four arms! Look! Four arms!"

Mantis took a moment to observe himself. "Hmm... Testicles, Spectacles... Wallet and Watch..." He held all four designated areas with a separate hand. "Heeey, I do have four hands! Wicked!"

Master Crane coughed out loud, "Why are you seizing yourself in an inappropriate manner? And seizing yourself three more times in an odd manner?"

Mantis turned to Crane and barked, "Be-cause, I-can! Four hands, four times the... wait no... I only have one-"

"WE GET IT!" Viper slapped her tail across the table to forcibly stop Mantis from adjusting himself.

"Dude." Monkey nodded with his lips poked forward in an approving manner. "Cool. Four arms... When did you grow an extra two?"

"I think I grew it in my sleep... You know, instead of punching a hole in the floor boards, I wake up with two extra arms." Mantis finally took the available chance to flex. "Errrgh! Yeah, four arms! Manly!"

Viper rolled her eyes, smiling. "Four arms, makes you more of a man? Perhaps if you used all of them to clean up something."

"Oh it's fine. I'll do the dishes." Po offered, slurping the last remains of his udon noodles.

The fact that Po missed the point made both Viper and Tigress laugh out loud, and Mantis concluded his flexing. "But-" He began, regaining the attention of his friends while striding over to his cooling bowl of noodles.

"I can't really explain the meaning behind my trial... But everything was black, and moving faster than I could imagine... I could see the world around me racing by so swiftly that flesh decayed and melted off the bones of the sentries that were placed in charge of watching over me." Mantis laughed with a loud, '_HA!'_, "But I couldn't tell if I was dreaming, or if I was actually trapped in the same cage those thirty or so years ago... I—feared for my life. I didn't want to die, and I didn't know what was going to happen to me if I was forced to survive off my own minute body-fat for a second time... And I suppose when I came to the realization that I wasn't invulnerable for a second time, my mind was satisfied and allowed me to return to consciousness."

The Dragon Warrior nodded as the others allowed the tale to sink in. "Awesome." He simply put the adventure. "So what about... the army of girls? That was coming to take you down?"

"Oh that?" Mantis laughed, "That was just a wild dream I had when I hit puberty."

"Nice." Monkey chuckled and tossed back his bowl of noodles.

"So buddy." The insect Warrior quickly turned on his best friend. "What was _your_ **Mind's Eye**?"

"Yeah Monkey, what was it?" Viper chimed in.

"I'd be interested in knowing as well." Crane commented while spooning soup towards his beak.

"Oh well ok," Monkey sat up. "You guys remember when we fought Tai-Lung?"

Tigress' mood immediately shifted from care-free to sour. "...Yeah, why?"

Monkey held up his hands in defense, "It's nothing bad, nothing at all that's bad... Just... that's what I had to relive."

Crane shuddered, "Ugh, I don't want to remember that day... Tai-Lung was super powerful and incredibly skilled..."

Viper sighed, "And unstoppable. He took us down pretty fast, even after we fought flawlessly as a team."

Mantis snorted. "Beh, I didn't get to fight..."

Monkey clapped his hands on the table. "Listen guys! It's not about Tai-Lung it was... after wards, like something else happened that... _didn't._"

"...What?" Po shook his head, deeply confused. The others all turned to Monkey with the same lost look on their faces, which opened the door to more explanation.

"Ok well... during the fight. Something changed... I remember launching Viper off of my arm so she could attack Tai-Lung but when she jumped... She vanished. Tigress, you jumped into the air and vanished and Crane soared into the sky. I turned back to see Mantis had already disappeared and when I whipped back around to face Tai-Lung alone, he'd simply faded away like steam..."

"...Strange." Mantis coughed, as he sipped up an extra hot pepper. "So, we all took off on you, even Tai-Lung? Crazy man."

"Yeah that is weird, I'd never leave any of you guys behind." Crane added, "But what happened next Monkey? Did the bridge fall because Mantis couldn't have been holding onto it anymore."

The golden languor nodded while taking a large sip of soup and chewing on a few soft and tasty noodles. "Yeah, that's precisely what happened..."

"So... it was one of those _falling _dreams?" Tigress asked, while gathering up empty bowls, taking over Po's optional duty.

"Kind of," Monkey responded, "But the fog that was peacefully swirling under us had turned into a violent electrical storm... and I was sucked into it without hesitation."

Monkey sat up on his tail while remaining in his chair so he could begin waving his arms around the room to better explain his plight. "So I was falling... and falling... and falling... Every inch of everything around me was fog. I couldn't see a single thing other than lightning and mist. It was scary, and I was starting to feel cold and dizzy at the same time. But I guess my mind decided it was time for the real test to begin... So I heard a voice in my head... speaking to me as calmly as possible."

"...!" The entire room was quiet with suspense and Monkey continued.

"I turned my head once, then twice but I couldn't see anyone... but I recognized the voice." Monkey sat up on his tail and folded his knees while extending his arms to meditate. "It was Oogway..."

"Whoa? Master Oogway was there?" Po slammed his paws on the kitchen table from excitement. "I didn't know that was even possible!"

"Me either," Master Tigress spoke, mostly shocked, as she returned from the sink. "Then again, Monkey did train directly under Master Oogway for a few years so it makes since..."

Monkey nodded with his eyes closed. "He repeated the words that I first heard from him when we first met... he said '_Monkey... Within you I see great skill but also... Great Pain...' _But he went on to speak further as I was in my perpetually endless free fall... He told me '_You have been improving, and it makes my heart happy to see such growth. But your journey to your ultimate destiny isn't over yet, nor has it truly begun._"

"Wow..." Master Crane swallowed hard on air. "Master Oogway visited you in your sl... Well, in your _Mind's Eye,_ do you think Oogway is responsible for the _Mind's Eye_ all together? He did invent Kung-Fu after all."

Viper impatiently hissed at Crane, "I don't know, but we'll talk about that later. I want to know what happens next."

Monkey smiled and nodded, "Well, what happened next was truly amazing for me. Oogway said one last thing, then set me loose. He said, '_That pain in your heart has been healed. You are a warrior of great skill and great compassion, with divine pants. Never fear the dark, my son, for even the darkest cloud has a silver lining.'_ And then... I felt him pat my head and vanish..."

"So wise..." Viper bowed her head in respect to her late Master. "What did he mean by your pants?"

"It's a long story." Monkey chuckled, "But after I felt Oogway leave me... I came to a realization. That everything around me was dark. All the fog that was obstructing my vision was impossible to see through because I had doubt... But there was lightning all around me, that would guide me through the dark... It was showing me the way. The lightning was the silver lining in my dark clouds, and I could feel it coursing through me, like I was a super charged lightning rod."

"So you became a lighting bolt?" Mantis tilted his head to one side. "Or is this some kind of clever metaphor?"

"I wouldn't say clever, but I did find my way back to the bridge." Monkey admitted with a smile.

"How?" Crane shook his neck, "I mean, weren't you falling? How did you get back to it without flying?"

"Whoa? Monkey, can you fly?" Po jumped up. "That would be so cool!"

"Uh, no." The Golden Languor answered, "I didn't fly... I just well... I don't know. After I understood Master Oogway's wise words and began to recognize the signals the of the lightning in the storm I just... fell back onto the ledge where all four of us landed next to Mantis. Tai-Lung fell into the valley of fog, while he was coiled in the bridge's rope and the rest is... you know, fact and history."

Master Tigress sat back down, next to Po, but leaned in on the table as she did. She, and the others, weren't fully able to wrap their heads around the story. "So wait... You mean, you kind of faded out of memory for a second, then returned only moments after you technically vanished?"

"I guess?" Monkey shrugged, "I do remember sending Viper at Tai-Lung then... in the dream, I was falling, and falling... Then moments later I land back on the ledge with everyone else."

Po scratched his head, "I wasn't there that day guys. Did Monkey really vanish during the fight?"

"NO!" The Furious Five all shouted in unison.

Viper laughed and patted Po on his shoulder, "Sorry for shouting Dragon Warrior. But Monkey was with us the entire time... It's just that his _Mind's Eye_ is so strange."

Monkey laughed this time, "At least I still have two hands, and I'm _very_ happy with that development!"

"Psh," Mantis brushed off his shoulders, "Speak for yourself. This here, is going to change my life. I can talk with my hands, practice my writing, thumb through Viper's diary _and_ pick my teeth ALL at the same time!"

"Haha eww, you pick your teeth?" Crane chuckled.

"You talk with your hands, even when no one is around?" Master Tigress held up a paw to stifle a laugh.

"Hey wait... What was that about my diary?" Viper sat up to hiss.

"Oh look at the time!" Mantis held up his four arms like he had four wrist watches. "I'm missing my soaps!"

In an instant Mantis jumped from the kitchen table and began running out of the Palace with Master Viper hot on his tail, and to preserve the comedy, Monkey gave chase after the others while shouting for Viper to '_not_' kill Mantis. Master Crane shook his head with a smile on his face, trying to think up something to do with his day that will be entertaining, and educational... somehow.

"So awesome," Po clapped his hands. "So cool! But they never told us what their new power was. I wanted to know."

Crane nodded and rose from his chair. "Well I don't know about Mantis, but from what Monkey said, it sounds like _Lightning._ And since all of our abilities have been named in _Japanese_ I'd assume you would call it '_Raikouchi'_ or... _Raikou_ I suppose."

"Hmm? You speak Japanese?" Tigress turned to Crane, surprised at the new development in the eldest of the Furious Five.

"Yeah, everyone from Sun-Lo can, I'm surprised I never told you. Oh well," Crane rose a wing to signal his departure. "Take care, I'm going to go practice this new power of mine."

"Hey Crane!" Po shouted after the winged Master. "What's _your_ Power?"

"_Mizu."_ Crane said while holding up a wing as though he was holding a cup.

"...What?" Po rubbed his head as Tigress sat on the table next to him, now that they were the only ones left in the kitchen.

"He said _Water. _So I guess Crane has power over water. So that makes Water, Fire, and Lightning so far... and yours is just strange. It's Gravity like Shifu's but... very violent and untamed."

Po grinned, "Just like me. I'm a violent untammed mass of super charged awesomeness."

Tigress giggled, "Yes yes, I'm sure you are. But you're going to need to put a leash on that _awesomeness_ so it won't threaten to burn your arms off anymore... Your hands are super black, blacker than usual."

"Is it so bad to be black?" Po asked, trying to be clever while leaning back in his chair, but without warning the chair collapsed under his butt and sent him to the floor.

"Uh... I don't know how to answer that question. But now we need to buy a new chair."

"Sorrryyyyyy." Po muttered, standing up and rubbing his butt. "Darn, I shouldn't have done that. Maybe we can get a big, strong chair for me when we go out?"

"I guess," Tigress stretched and stood up. "Wait... did you say _Go Out?_"

"Yeah, we're going out aren't we?" The Dragon Warrior responded, while holding up a decimated chair leg in one hand.

"Are we?" Tigress asked, half glaring at him to demand an answer.

"I don't know?" Po took a step back, "You're the one who suggested it! You said we were going to get new chairs!"

"I said _chairs!_ Not '_Going Out'_!"

"What are you talking about?" Po held his head in one paw, trying to understand why Tigress was being so confusing... She'd been acting weird all morning, and now she'd dancing words around Po's head like a mad woman.

Although before Tigress could say anything, Master Shifu appeared at the door of the kitchen to cut in. "Yes... I agree with Po, Tigress... what _ARE_ you talking about?"

"M-Master Shifu!" Tigress stood up straight, but she wasn't allowed to do or say much else by the time Shifu had begun chasing the two warriors around the kitchen like they were field mice, trapped in a storage shed.

"You broke a chair!" Shifu grunted, "Get out! I said go enjoy a day off, and you break a chair! Go get a new one before I make you two do some _REAL_ training! Out! OUT! **OUT!"**

"Well that's just great," Po began to complain as he and Tigress ran down the thousand stairs that lead to the Valley of Peace. "You got us barked at by Shifu and now we _actually_ have to go buy a chair!"

"Why are you complaining about buying furniture? You weren't mad about it a moment ago!" Tigress huffed while fleeing from the Palace, hoping to get as far away from Shifu's aged wrath as quickly as possible.

"Well I thought _get a chair_ was some clever, Inu-niku that Mantis and Monkey always talk about!"

"_Inuniku?_" Tigress half paused, but remembered that she needed to keep running. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"You know! Inuniku! Like when someone's hitting on you, but they're doing it all clever."

"You mean _Innuendo?"_

"Is that how it's pronounced?" Po laughed at himself, slightly embarrassed. "Well then what was I saying? Was it Japanese?"

"_Very_-" Tigress shook her head, as he and Po came to a stop at the bottom of the stairs, in the Valley of Peace, where she could catch her breathe and devote her full attention to yelling at Po. "Ok look, I wasn't putting on any _Innuendo_ and if I was it wouldn't be a pick up line, referring to broken furniture."

"Although a pick up line about broken furniture would be pretty hot." Po commented to himself, while staring off into space.

"Yeah I supp-" Tigress cut herself off. "No! Hey! Pay attention!" She grabbed Po's cheeks in both her paws. "Inu-niku is _NOT_ the same as Innuendo. Nor was there any innuendo being proclaimed moments ago, alright?"

"Well ok..." Po scratched his head, "So I understand that much but... what was I saying? Was it Japanese? I'd love to learn some more Japanese."

"Ugh... Well yes it was but it certainly wasn't the word you were looking for," Tigress released the Dragon Warrior's face. "What you probably meant to say, if you meant it in Japanese was, _Kobiru,_ which is as close to 'Innuendo' as you'll get in Japanese."

"Ok," Po nodded, taking mental notes. "So what was _I _saying?"

Tigress exhaled and pinched her brow with a paw. "Ok … What _you_ were saying was Inu-niku.. which means-"

"Dog Meat." A voice cut in from one side, cutting off Tigress and turning both heads.

The two Masters quickly snapped their vision to the figure of a large black man approaching them. His face was littered with scars, and his fur was as black as smoldering ash. It had been a full year since the three had seen one another, and even after such a short time, they had no idea who this man was... or at least not a first.

"Um... Yeah, it means... Dog Meat." Tigress finished, and turned to the black cat approaching. "Hello, who are you?"

The black snow leopard bowed before Tigress, and only Tigress, "Hello Master Tigress, my name... is Tetsu."


	6. Chapter 6

.

.

**Tetsu**

**.**

**VI**

**.**

**.**

_Day 10 : Morning_

_China – Sun Lo & The Li Da Academy _

_._

_._

"Hey, haven't I seen you from somewhere...?" Wonton, the panda, began laughing and waving his paws in the air like he was flagging a rickshaw. This morning he was eating breakfast, shoveling what looked like eggs and bamboo into his mouth. But the minute he saw his old battle buddy approaching, he put his chop sticks down and began to hail the brawler over. However, upon closer inspection, the panda quickly realized that the man he was calling, wasn't the same guy. "Wait no... That other guy was built. Kinda like me, you don't look as buff, but you certainly do look like him, or... He looks like you since you look a lot older..." The panda started to mutter.

"Someone... looks like me?" Tai-Shen lightly repeated, while approaching the feasting monochrome bear. "Do tell . . ."

"Well," The Panda responded, "Like I said." He paused to swallow his breakfast, then started up again. "The guy I saw the other night was big... you know... BIG!" Wonton demonstrated his point by flexing his own muscles. "He had scars, a thick tail, black fur, just like yours, and uhhhhh... " He paused again.

"Bandages?" Tai-Shen cut in after a long pause on the phrase 'Uuuuhhhhh'.

"Yeah yeah!" Wonton pointed a finger to Tai-Shen and nodded finally taking into account that Tetsu and Tai-Shen were wearing the same outfit. "Yep, bandages. Hey- you must know him! You guys brothers?"

"He's my student-" Tai-Shen quickly answered and began looking around as if he could smell Tai-Lung somewhere nearby. "Where is he?"

"Um... the last I saw, a woman drug him off to the Li-Da Academy sometime last night. He helped me take out some rhino's and took a nasty kick to his spine. Hope the poor guy is ok. Kicks hurt."

"W-what?" Tai-Shen spun to turn back to Wonton who had begun to down a tall glass of . . . something, but Tai-Shen was more interested in the Li-Da Academy and his student than foreign food. "Where is the Academy? Is there a hospital there?"

Wonton nodded, releasing a deep gasp of satisfaction from his breakfast, "Yeah, there is," The panda nodded and wiped his mouth with a thick napkin. "Want me to take you... there? Uh, guy?" Somehow, during the time it took for the panda to wipe his mouth and blink, the black panther had already vanished, leaving him by himself to enjoy the remnants of his meal. Wonton, being a good sport, shrugged it off and went back to eating and he would check into the Academy sometime later on...

Tai-Shen on the other hand needed to be at the Academy in a less... casual speed. Tai-Lung's health was very important to him, and hearing that the boy had _already_ gotten into a fight in only being gone for a few days was inexcusable... He wouldn't be punished, but he would get a scolding... It was the best he could do... for a beating would only result in the very thing that Tai-Shen was trying to avoid. But his fears were quickly replaced with doubt as he discovered found the Li-Da Academy. Wasting no time, he practically kicked the doors to the academy wide open; much to the shock of all inside the main hall.

He sniffed at the air, picking up light traces of a snow leopard in the building, but... it was feint, very feint, like Tai-Lung had been here at some point, but he wasn't here anymore. Tai-Shen's sudden entry however, attracted a lot of unnecessary attention from the students and teachers who trained, worked and lived in the academy, and Tai-Shen wasn't exactly wearing the robes or carrying the aura of a good guy about him. As a matter of fact, as soon as Chorch-Gom had been re-opened, the Chorch-Gom Rhinos began spreading stories about Tai-Shen and his unbelievable chi powers...

No one exactly knew of what, Tai-Shen looked like, nor did they know much about his mission, and even fewer people knew his name. But anyone who was superstitious, a gossip hound, or passionate about martial arts; which was all of China, had heard about the mysterious Black Panther that could move mountains with his own two hands... Of course those were full blown exaggerated stories, but none the less, there was plenty of awareness out for old guys wearing a lot of bandages. And here Tai-Shen was, in the lion's den, and he was agitating a whole hive full of cubs striving to make something out of themselves and their years of training.

A crowd of nine, faded jade green wearing, warriors all stood up and began to approach Tai-Shen, all of them looking as though they wanted to pick a fight with the mysterious and malevolent black panther with the intent of victory.

"Who the hell are you?" A young tanuki shouted from the ring while running forward.

"I'm no one important... I'm looking for one of my students..." Tai-Shen responded. "A black panther... He was wounded from a fight, and was brought here by a woman some time ago... "

A young rhino stepped forward, "I heard that guy was in a street fight where some Chorh-Gom Rhino's were killed. I'm sure our Master took him out to kill him in a field somewhere."

"...Excuse me...?" Tai-Shen snarled, balling up his fists as the nine jade students began to surround him on all sides. Tai-Shen noticed this, and didn't like what could possibly happen. He hadn't been in a real fight in over thirty years and testing his _mountain moving_ power on children would have dramatic results... The nine had no chance to win, especially if they all attacked at once "I'll only say it once... You cubs had better break formation and stand down." The black panther warned, exhaling deeply and producing smoke from his nostrils like he had been smoking a pipe.

"Cubs?" A falcon laughed from behind the crowd, slowly making her way up to the line of scrimmage.

"Min!" A few students gasped and cleared a path. Min was a faded blue falcon with a thin white trim on the end of each of her feathers. She was tall, and stood on two fairly thin bird legs like Master Crane, but her stature and muscle tone was much greater than that of Cranes. Although in a show of skill, Master Crane would still be the victor.

"Min...?" Tai-Shen repeated, as the falconess stepped up to get into his face. She was glaring as though Tai-Shen had just roused her from a glorious nap, or perhaps interrupted her favorite stage play.

"That's right... And you're the guy who's going to get his butt kicked for kicking in the door of our glorious academy!" The Falcon held up a winged hand, to signal all her allies, telling them to back away.

"I have no interest in fighting you, or anyone today... I'm only looking for my student..." Tai-Shen half grunted as he turned his back on the Falcon and proceeded to exit the academy.

"Hmph..." Min snapped her fingers, and several students charged past the black panther to slam the doors of the Academy shut. "I don't think you understand the caliber of disgracing the Academy, do you, Monster?"

"...Monster?" Tai-Shen exhaled deeply, still with his back turned to the Falcon.

"That's right... There's been stories going around. Nasty stories..." Min laughed, "About a grizzly looking old man... Fur of Jet Black... Frame as thin as a withered sapling, and wrapped in bandages like a leper... I'm not too certain on a name, but the way your fur streaked silver when I called you … _Monster,_ is proof enough that a criminal walks before me."

"Criminal...?" The black panther repeated again, partially angered in the realization that people actually know a enough about him, and his habits, to identify him with a single action.

"That's right... Criminal. Chorch-Gom Prison is property of the Royal Army, Holy Family and the Emperor. The emperor himself can feel when the Prison has been defaced, and I'm sure he's rolling over in his throne to get your head." Min cracked her knuckles, grinning brightly.

"...You have someone else in mind..." Tai-Shen snorted, trying his best to keep his rage to a minimum.

"And not only that..." Min grinned, "Word on the street is you're also in league with a notorious murderer..."

Tai-Shen went silent for a moment, flexing his paws. "You're referring to... Tai... Lung..." Tai-Shen mouthed the words slowly, able to feel the Falconess advancing on him. He exhaled deeply, and ducked under the flying kick of the Falcon. She landed only a foot in front of the black panther and spun backwards to deliver a roundhouse kick to Tai-Shen's temple, which he caught with a single paw.

"You young ones need to learn to respect your elders..." Tai-Shen hissed and pushed the falcon backwards by her leg to throw her off balance, but she didn't back down. The bird charged forward and threw another straight kick at Tai-Shen, trying to hit him squarely in his Yin-Yang pendant, but the panther side stepped the kick and seized the Falcon's leg once more and forced it to the floor with such speed; the bird was forced to run up and trip over her own feet like she'd been running down hill and ran into flat land.

"D-damn!" The bird cursed and rolled over to recover from the sudden and unexpected topple. "You're clearly no ordinary old man..." Min grinned, "But are you as nearly as strong as these stories portray you to be!"

"Hardly..." Tai-Shen growled, "I've heard that I killed one hundred rhinos with one swing of my hand... Completely untrue."

"Really?" Min charged forward and punched a fist at Tai-Shen's head, he dodged as she expected and she fell low to sweep one of her thin legs to trip him up. "How—could a story get so farfetched without some—truth to it?"

Tai-Shen fell backwards but caught himself with a highly agile roll, granting him at least five feet of distance between him and Min. "I'm not sure... Fear, mystery, doubt... Possibly alcohol." Tai-Shen stood up and proceeded to dust off his bandages as Min charged up to dive at him. He allowed the bird to collide with his body, only to turn her momentum against her.

Min, at first, thought was going to ram the old criminal to the ground and punch his face in, but the moment she got her hands on Tai-Shen, she was flung away like an empty bottle of wine. The bird flew threw the air aimlessly for a moment, but spread her wings to correct her flight and save herself from hitting a wall of the Academy. Tai-Shen snorted, seeing how unsuccessful his pacifist ways were turning out and realized that he'd eventually need to _hit_ the bird to get this bout to stop.

The falcon landed and held up her hands, "Ok old man... I'm not in the mood to keep playing with you, so how about I show you a little something that only highly trained students can do?"

"...Like?" Tai-Shen paused, but he rose one of his paws to defend himself in case the surprise attack was something he'd really need to be worried about.

"Well let's just say... I hope you know how to fight fifty people at once!"

The other Li-Da trainees and students gasped and stood back as Min began powering up her _chi_, Tai-Shen on the other hand had a sinister grin on his face, and he lowered his paw... Eagerly awaiting whatever Min had in store for him. The air around Min began to shift and flow like her feathers were tea pots, boiling water. The white trim on her feathers started to glow brightly and a few of her feathers separated from her as she whispered something into the air...

"_Utsushi...Nijuu...Chi..."_ Min quietly whispered to herself, then she threw her arms back, and howled out loud. Her clothes burned off of her body and left her stark naked for a brief moment as the room began to fill with large, full sized clouds of glowing energy, then... Before Tai-Shen knew what was going on, there was a bright flash that threw his back by a few inches.

"What in the..." Tai-Shen growled to himself. He had instinctively raised a paw to block the light from getting to his eyes, but for a moment he wished that he hadn't. Because now the room had grown very crowded... Tai-Shen didn't know if he was more surprised or impressed by this young birds chi abilities...

"Well?" Min called from the newly formed crowd. She was fully clothed once again and standing in a sea of duplicate falcons... All of which, looked like her.

"I'm... speechless actually." Tai-Shen laughed, and took a quick glance at the other students. They were rammed and piled against the walls of the Academy by the explosion of chi that had formed the army of duplicate Falcons. "What chi is this? Pre-tell?"

Min, at the center, stretched and cracked her knuckles. "It's a special chi that the _Old Master_ used to teach us, Mei-Ling teaches a different _Master Technique_ but this one is called, _Utsushi Chi_."

"Ah..." Tai-Shen smiled and nodded his head. "I see..." He observed the crowd. There were now twenty more falcons present in the room, all of which looked as much like each other as they did themselves; Perfect clones. "How are they anchored? By your feathers? I saw them disconnect before the flash."

Min nodded, "You're observant... But yes, my feathers, serve as the catalyst for the _Utsusu_, but enough explanations... Hardly anyone sees this chi, and if they ever do, I normally make sure they never tell anyone else."

"Really?" Tai-Shen chuckled, "Fine then... But I warn you... My _chi_ is much more dangerous than yours, so... My final warning is... Stand down, and allow me to leave, and I won't harm you. I just want to find my student."

Min laughed out loud, as well as the other clones. It sounded more like Tai-Shen was in the middle of a comedy club than a Kung-Fu Academy. "I don't think so, criminal... _Utsusu... ATTACK!"_

Tai-Shen closed his eyes, and exhaled deeply, channeling his own chi finally. "Oh dear... Well, I warned you..." He flexed his old muscles, and dove at the sea of chi birds roaring out... "_**KUMITE!**__"_

_._

_._

_Day 10 : Morning_

_China – The Valley of Peace_

_._

_._

"So..." Tetsu began, forcing himself into the legendary duo, "What does it feel like to be... _The Dragon Warrior?_" Tetsu asked, while waving his blackened paws in the air. Tigress grinned a little as Po began to deeply think as if he were looking for an answer, but it was more than obvious that the title of Dragon Warrior was all the glory Po had attained from ascension. He hadn't even changed his wardrobe.

"Uh..." The large Panda was thinking on both hands while he tailed behind Tigress. "I uh... Well... It's awesome!" Po flexed his muscles, "And you get a LOT of smiles and praise from the villagers. You're like an idol when you're the Dragon Warrior."

"Is that so." Tetsu responded, mostly by stroking his chin and picking up his walking pace so he could approach Tigress. Once he and her were standing side by side, Tetsu leaned in slightly to whisper to the Leader of the Furious Five. "I've never _met_ the Dragon Warrior in person, but he doesn't seem like a warrior of Heaven, does he?"

Tigress turned to Tetsu, smiling and giving a partial nod. "I... can't say for sure if he's a Warrior of Heaven or not, but Po is surely the Dragon Warrior. He earned it, where I could not... Although," Tigress paused to take a glance back at Po, who was still rattling off the benefits of being super popular, without a care in the world. A few of his gestures included flexing, pointing, cheering and rubbing his large belly. All of which were foreign to Tetsu and Tigress on their specific meaning since Po had also begun talking about the benefits-his head.

"Is... he talking to himself?" The black panther laughed and stepped off to one side, to let the Dragon Warrior aimlessly strut up the street on his own; leaving him oblivious to the fact that he was now in front... waaay in front. Tetsu only noticed that Tigress had also stepped aside when she began laughing.

"Po's a unique character, you can't hate him for that." She smiled, watching him leave with a warm haze on her face. Tetsu noticed this, and turned, to watch Po carrying on, and on down the road... It made his eyes twitch and his lips tremble up, forming a snarl.

"So..." Tigress interrupted Tetsu's malicious thoughts. "You don't actually look Japanese, but you seem to know how to speak it." The tigress said, approaching Tetsu with a sway in her hips.

"Ah, well..." Tetsu began to mutter like Shifu would on a date. "You see... erm..."

"Something wrong?" Tigress tilted her head to one side, still smiling...

'_The hell?'_ Tetsu thought to himself, watching Tigress' smile and her attitude... _'She... was different. Clearly different, what happened in that year? We weren't close, we weren't friends... But I knew she wasn't like this when we first met...'_

"Master Tigress?" Tetsu stood up straight, and swallowed hard, trying to get his thoughts together. "Are you ok?"

"Huh?" Tigress also stood up straight, "What do you mean?"

"I always thought that you were... a more... uh..." Tetsu made a slight pause, to restore his will to speak. "I always thought you were... more... Serious?"

"Serious?" Tigress began to laugh. "Serious? You—can't be serious. The world can't be serious. Nothing... nothing is serious."

"Can you stop saying, _serious._" Tetsu sighed, shaking his head. _'Something's clearly wrong with her brain.'_ He thought.

"Tetsu... I don't know you very well, but you know who I am... What I did, and what I used to stand for." Tigress sighed deeply, turning away from the black panther and turning her gaze up to the golden sun and the bright morning sky.

"What? Used to?" Tetsu stepped forward, "What are you talking about now, woman? You're Master Tigress, I heard that you almost mastered the Thousand Scrolls of Kung Fu, and you were the only pupil of Master Shifu for a couple of years."

"Yes..." Tigress exhaled. She opened her arms and craned her head back, as though she were absorbing sun light for power. "The world used to make since, a year ago."

"I don't understand..." Tetsu shook his head, "What are you going on about? Is this about the Dragon Warrior?"

Tigress lowered her arms, and turned her head, just to glance back at Tetsu with one eye. "Yeah. Him."

Tetsu stood back, with a repulsed look on his face. "Wha? Do … you despise him?"

Master Tigress shook her head and turned her attention back to the sun and sky, raising her arms once again. "I used to... But things are different now."

Tetsu shook his head and grunted. Without warning, he took one of Master Tigress' paws in his and forcefully spun her around so that she was staring at him and not Mr. Sun.

"Master—Tigress... You're speaking in riddles... Level with me. Tell me, what happened to you. You weren't always like this."

Tigress, at first, was upset and shocked that some unknown dared to manhandle her in such a manner, but... Then she could feel something coming from the black panther that was... different, yet familiar. His hands were strong, his voice was powerful, and his scent was so painfully familiar that a nostalgic memory was resting on the tip of Tigress' tongue, but refused to emerge into clairvoyance.

"You're right," Tigress chuckled. "I wasn't always like this..." She turned her eyes off to one side for just a moment, then redirected her eyes back to Tetsu's. "I used to be an idol, a legend... A strong... powerful-"

"-Honorable, Disciplined, and Feared Warrior. Known to always end, but never to start a battle..." Tetsu finished Tigress' sentence, smiling slightly.

Tigress grinned, "Hey, I think you know more about me, than I do."

Tetsu smiled, "I... keep tabs on my favorite people. I'd hate to be challenged in my knowledge of legendary Warriors and have a missing library on Tigress knowledge."

Tigress finally removed her paws from Tetsu's grip and took a step back to settle herself. "Is that so? So how come you know so much about me—and not the Dragon Warrior?"

Tetsu rolled his eyes, "Are you kidding? The Dragon Warrior? His Season Record is 1:0, and pre-season, he served noodles and majored in Sleep. Who would want to keep track of a rookie?"

It was Tigress' turn to roll her eyes, "Alright _Coach,_ I guess I see what you mean, but we were all _Rookie's_ at one point. Even me."

Tetsu went silent for a moment, turning his gaze off to one side, away from Tigress, away from everything. "I know..."

Tigress' ears stood up on end, noticing the dramatic change in Tetsu's demeanor. "What? You... even know about my youth don't you?"

Tetsu nodded slightly, still not looking at Tigress.

"How?" Tigress gasped, getting upset. "How does _anyone_ know about that?"

"I can... read... Japanese." Tetsu muttered, silently.

"What..." Tigress stepped forward to grab Tetsu by the bandages that hid unseen wounds. "What do you mean by that? You can't possibly be talking about... _The book._" Tigress paused. "How..."

"I..." Tetsu was coming up short with words.

"Tell me, Tetsu. Tell me, how did you know about T_he Book_? Master Shifu doesn't even know about _The Book?_" Tigress growled, slowly unleashing her contained rage.

"Please calm down, Tigress... I don't want the book... I don't want anything." Tetsu pleaded.

"Then why are you here? What _do_ you want? How do you know about the book? And who ARE you?" All the shouting was starting to draw attention, and it wasn't like the two felines were arguing in a back alley or the privacy of their own room. Rabbits, Pigs, Ducks and Sheep were all starting to take notice of Master Tigress yelling at an, apparently wounded, black panther.

"Tell me!" Tigress shook Tetsu, pulling him closer to her, so her snarling fangs were grading against Tetsu's slow moving lips.

"Tigress..." Tetsu sighed deeply, standing up and again, taking Tigress' wrists and paws in his own once again. "Legends never die... and I'll tell you everything you need to know, in good time."

"Wh..." Tigress muttered, but Tetsu released her hands, passively making her let him go.

"I'll tell you everything, in good time..." Tetsu repeated as he bowed, then turned to leave. "But if you must know..." The panther spoke, while walking away. "I came to the Valley of Peace today, to see you. To see your face... and I'm pleased with what I saw."

"My...face?" Tigress put a paw up to her cheek, blushing. "Huh? T-tetsu?" She called after him, but he was gone. Out of sight completely... All she was left with was his voice; calling from somewhere in the disbursing crowd. It said; '_Sayonara...' _then faded completely.

Tigress remained where she was standing for what felt like an hour after Tetsu had retreated... Villagers passed by Tigress like she was an average citizen, gawking at the horizon and allowed her to do as she wanted. Tigress' mind was lit with the image of Tetsu... Something about him was confusing... He was a well spoken, well built, and a clearly well educated black panther who had an extensive knowledge about her. Ordinarily, Tigress would be flattered but... Something, something obvious, something terribly concealed, there was something stupid obvious about Tetsu that Tigress couldn't pin... but what was it?

"Hey, Tigress!" Po's voice flooded Tigress' ears. Shattering her train of thought and kicking her back into reality, just as a small plethora of children went past Tigress like they were on fire.

"Gah..." Tigress exhaled, "Children."

"Hey, Tigress. You ok? I got to the furniture store and noticed you and that other guy weren't with me." Po scratched the back of his head, laughing nervously. "Kinda funny huh?"

"Kinda weird actually... What were you doing the whole time? How didn't you notice me and Tetsu weren't with you?" Tigress shook her head, placing a paw over both eyes. "What am I going to do with you?"

"Well, I don't wanna be like... the bearer of bad news, but I don't see Tetsu here either. Did you lose him? You didn't eat him did you?" Po grinned, nudging Tigress gently in an arm with his elbow.

"No I...- Wait.." Tigress paused, for a short moment, allowing her brow to form into a frown and her lips into a frown. "What was that supposed to mean!"

Po held up his paws, to defend himself from Tigress, but it was Tigress that jumped away, seeing what was in Po's hands.

"W-what in the hell is that?" Tigress pointed a finger forward at the large and intricately decorated chair resting in Po's paws. It was painted deep green, like jade, with small engravings of Dragons cascading all across the edges and the legs of the chair. The seat and back of the chair were padded, red with golden trim lining the edges. It was a beautifully crafted piece of furniture, and Po was in possession of it. "Holy damn..." Tigress gulped, "How much did that cost?"

"Er... Not sure." The Panda tilted and rotated the chair in his tiny paws, "The guy at the shop just gave it to me." Po smiled, smiling and marveling over his new, durable, chair.

"The guy? At the shop?" Tigress exhaled deeply, with a smile on her lips. "I know I'll never figure out where you went, and really it doesn't matter. I mean, nothing bad can come of this. And, I suppose you _did_ get the chair. So...!" Tigress stretched, " I guess we go back to the palace, right?"

"Yep." Po said, triumphantly and began following Tigress back towards the Jade Palace. "So where'd that guy go anyway? I thought he was with you?"

"I don't know where he went. He just... you know, _left_..." Tigress said with a slight smile, glad that someone at least noticed her today. She licked her lips, but caught the taste of something . . . different.

She didn't stop walking however, all that would do is get Po's attention. The Tigress placed a finger up to her lips, and swiped where the strange taste was present. Slowly she pulled her finger away to notice a black streak staining her fur.

"What...?" Tigress muttered silently to herself. "What is this... ink?"

"Huh? Did you say something Tigress?" Po leaned over to ask. Smiling as bright as the, now afternoon, sun.

"Oh, no. Nothing Po, it's nothing." Tigress smiled, and waved him on... slowly, falling behind him when he began to pick up the pace. It gave Tigress enough time to get back to her thoughts. What was with the stain on her lips... Was it from Tetsu? They didn't kiss, and the only time her mouth got close to his was when she growled at him...

"Tetsu..." Tigress muttered, wrinkling her brow, trying to remember where she'd heard that name before. Where had she seen a face like his? Where can she remember a scent like his? Where, does she remember the strength and the size of paws like his... Who _was_ Tetsu... The truth was in his eyes, and the answer was on the tip of her tongue... But it wouldn't come forward.

"Bah, I'll figure it out eventually. But I know I'll think better when I'm sitting in that chair~"

_._

_._

_Day 10 : Noon_

_China – Bo Gu Dao Road_

_( Leading Towards the South, Further from Chorch Gom Prison )_

_( The Opposite Direction of Normal Travel )_

_._

_._

The store was silent, but there was still plenty of reason to be cautious. The store owner, a young ocelot, was standing out front of his shop, scanning the road and taking a well deserved break. He had to rush the last client, a famous panda, out of the store with more haste than he would if he tail was on fire. There were important matters at hand, but he was unsure of why he was forced to throw out the Dragon Warrior in only a few moments, but now had the time to stand around and look casual.

"Can I come back inside yet?" He asked, tilting his head back to absorb some of the afternoon sunlight.

"Uh... Not yet!" A voice replied from inside his store. The voice was accompanied by plenty of shuffling and the mild tone of cloth ruffling like there was a violent wind. "Not yet."

"I heard you the first time," The ocelot exhaled and adjusted his purple vest. He was bored... he was waiting... He was bored of waiting. But patience was a virtue he was proud of, and whatever was happening in his home had to be very important if he was being forced to stay outside of it.

The waiting game went on for another few minutes until the Ocelot released a deep sigh. Then, before he knew it, the front door of his store flew open with a flash. He was fast enough to remain on his two feet but not without flailing his arms to regain balance. "Whaaa!" He gasped.

"Heh heh sorry about that." Spoke the figure who opened the door. She lifted her paws to peel away the dark hood that covered her face. "I couldn't have you drooling over any naked bodies." The brown feline winked.

The Ocelot gulped quickly, the brown feline in front of him beautiful, but it wasn't the first time he caught himself staring at her. Her fur was a warm brown hue, like walnuts. She was decorated lightly in brown spots that were mostly present on her arms and the sides and her cheeks, and she had a wonderfully bright white smile. Her ears were tall and brown, and her figure was slender and toned from years of fighting and acrobatics. But the woman in front of the Ocelot enjoyed hiding all her natural beauty, which included her luminous red and yellow eyes, under her dark hood and cloak instead of showing it off.

"Is everything ok, Fong?" The Ocelot asked, genuinely concerned, until Fong gently tapped him on the tip of his farmer's hat.

"Hey, I thought you knew you could call me, '_Black Crow' _not my real name."

"Err... right." The Ocelot adjusted his hat again, gently chuckling. "Well I'll call you '_Crow'_ for short. I'm sorry."

"It's alright, and yes, everything is fine. You can come in now." Crow turned and re-entered the Ocelot's home, swinging her tail behind her as she did.

Zhan, was the name of the shop owner. This morning he was trying to organize an inventory list for his shop and doing laundry, and this afternoon he was having a polite conversation with the Dragon Warrior of the Valley of Peace, but in less than ten minutes, he'd been thrown into a cyclone of mystery and suspense... It was always this way whenever Crow would turn up, but it wasn't always a _bad_ thing... there was something about '_Nakedness'_ going on after all. But much to Zhan's surprise when he entered his home and turned to the living room, there was another cloaked feline lying on his floor, staring up at him with shimmering purple eyes.

"Er..." Zhan stuttered, then bowed out of politeness. "Hello Miss."

"Um.." The kitten was silent for the most part, unable to formulate a response.

Crow cut in, to make things a bit better for the awkward introduction. "It's ok, Fu. He's a friend, a good friend." Crow crouched to help the purple haired snow leopardess off the floor and onto her feet. "Fu," She began, "I'd like you to meet, Zhan." Crow then turned to the Ocelot in question. "Zhan, This if Fu-Mai."

"A pleasure to m-meet you." Zhan extended a paw to shake with the cloaked female, knowing; but trying not to picture, her nakedness under her robes.

"Come now," Crow smiled. "Let's get you a place to rest. You must be tired after running all the way here without your sisters."

"Fu... Isn't tired..." The young snow leopard argued, but yawned loudly only a moment after. "Maybe Fu is a bit tired..."

"Heh heh come now, you can sleep in Zhan's room until we get you a bed."

"Huh?" Zhan spun around as the two cloaked assassins pushed past him. But there wasn't much he would be able to do. His chivalry wouldn't allow him to say '_No'_, and the snow leopard did need to lay down.

"Is something wrong?" Crow asked, turning to smile at Zhan from over one shoulder.

"Um... no." Zhan smiled and scratched the back of his head. "I also did the laundry this morning so everything should be in order up stairs. Just... uh, ask if you need anything."

"She'll be fine. She's an assassin. All she needs is a bed, and occasionally a meal." Crow chuckled to herself and lead the partially sleeping snow leopard to Zhan's room to put her to sleep.

After Crow and Fu-Mai vanished up the stairs, Zhan began scratching his head and finally removed his hat.

"I should probably close early today... Just in case." Zhan thought to himself out loud, then nodded and proceeded to do so. The last thing he'd want, would be to conduct business with two assassin's wandering around his home and business...

…

…

…

"So she got into a fight with the Dragon Warrior?" Zhan scratched his chin, trying to understand why anyone would want to fight the Dragon Warrior. He and Crow were engaged in a deep conversation while having a meal of rice balls, soup and tea. It was the first time he and her had seen each other in almost two years, so the introductions were cut short by the more urgent events of the day.

"I wouldn't exactly call it a _fight. _Fu-Mai, _met_, the Dragon Warrior, and she's afraid of him because of his _chi_." Crow was explaining the reason why she and Fu-Mai were here, while sipping her tea. "You see... _Genshuku_, is a very violent and powerful type of Chi. Especially in it's fledgling form... And the Dragon Warrior, from what I've heard, is chucked full of raw power..."

Zhan cut in while Crow paused to have a bite of her rice ball, "So The Dragon Warrior has one of the most violent types of chi, but he's untrained in it... Isn't that bad?"

Crow swallowed, and nodded. "Very." She rose to stretch, "Fu said, that the Dragon Warrior hasn't the ability to control it, and he'll turn on his _chi_ at random times... If, for any particular reason, he actually used any of his power on anyone, he'd tear them apart... Brutally."

"Whoa," Zhan sat up straight. "So he's like, a walking time bomb?"

"Sort of... Fu's an easy one to shake, so she'll lose her nerve to fight at the slightest hint of unavoidable death, but a _Genshuku _user without proper training is like staring a cooking fire in a straw hut. Wait no... it would be more like trying to milk a bull."

"A... bull?" Zhan tilted his head to one side, "But... bull's don't have... utters."

"Exactly." Crow began laughing loudly, as Zhan shuddered in his chair. "But, I need to be more serious. I brought Fu here because it was the only place I could think to bring an assassin."

"That's uh... good?" The ocelot wasn't sure if it was a good thing that his store was going to turn into the Assassin's Hideout, or a bad thing... But he knew there wasn't a way to turn down Crow whenever she had a favor to ask of him. "What else?"

"That and, I wanted to see you again." Crow admitted with a smile.

"Now that's actual good news. But you did come here all of a suddenly, I didn't even hear you or the other girl come in. I just turned to see you standing in the corner of the room while Po was looking at a _very expensive_ chair."

Crow began to laugh again, "Is that what he was doing? Well I apologize if I interrupted business. I can hunt him down for the money if you're interested in putting a bounty on h-"

"Are you insane?" Zhan stood up out of his chair, "I don't want you getting in any trouble, and you just said his chi is deadly dangerous!"

"Er... Dangerously, deadly?" Crow corrected, holding up a paw like she was a school teacher.

"Yes—that..." Zhan exhaled deeply, "But no, I don't want you getting in trouble, and I'll just charge him when he comes back again."

"Oh..." Crow smiled, trying to think of what else there was to discuss.

"So what about that girl, who is she?" Zhan pointed towards the stairs, where he last saw Fu-Mai.

"An Assassin like me. She was also from the Sisterhood, but she was born when the Organization split, due to in-fighting." Crow began to explain. She took a seat again and had a sip of tea to begin her story. Zhan, the Ocelot, intently listened to the epic yarn that Crow began to spin before him. The story began with Crow's introduction to the organization, and ended with the eventual collapse... But she hit, and explained major points of the story so that everything would make sense.

"...There were two of them." Crow explained, holding up a paw and two fingers. "They were sisters, and mostly did everything together, and they ran the Shou-Lie Yin-Ying without any flaw. Well that is until one of them brought a man into the equation."

"A boyfriend?" Zhan scratched his chin, intrigued in the story.

"Well more like a husband..." Crow leaned back in her chair, bringing the front legs of the chair off the floor so she could get _really_ comfortable. "They eventually had children together, five of them... And that's when _it_ hit the fan."

"Do tell." Zhan poured another cup of tea, trying to uncovered exactly _what_ hit the fan.

"Well, Syndicate law basically states that whenever a woman has a child, or children rather... She's to _kill_ the male children immediately."

"Eeegh!" Zhan gasped, "Really? That's awful. Why would they do that?"

"I'm... not entirely certain, but the Sister that had the children, gave birth to two males and three females... One male died during the birthing, and but the other was perfectly healthy..."

"So … What happened?" Zhan asked.

"Well... from what I gathered from one of my god-mothers... Xue hesitated when it came to killing the baby, and before she or her sister could do it... The father snatched the baby and ran out of the Sanctuary like a bat outta hell."

"Wha?" The Ocelot clapped a paw, "Swift man. Did you see him?"

Crow nodded, "I did, but not completely. He ran out wearing his wife's cloak and hood, so I couldn't see his face, and the clothes hide the pigmentation of your fur, so I didn't know what type of cat he was, but I knew he was a cat."

"Hold on— pigmentation? You mean color, right? How do the clothes do that? How come your clothes don't do that?" Zhan pointed forward while asking his questions. It was true that Crow's clothes weren't hiding the color of her fur right now, even though she was wearing them.

"You have to be wearing _both_ the Hood _and_ the Robes in order to make it work, and not only that... The hood has to be completely draped over your head in order for it to work. Behold."

Crow threw back her arms to let her chair fall and hit the floor, using the momentum to propel her backwards. She used the force to roll backwards and onto her feet like a trained acrobat, all the while, lowering her hood and closing her cloak. Once she was standing again on both her feet, she looked more like a shadow than she did Black Crow. The color had completely faded from her warm brown fur, and instead it had shifted into a waterlogged Grey tone... Her tall ears, had become dull Grey, along with her still waving tail. With the hood down, Crow's face had been consumed in shadow, that was apparently also able to consume light. Because the, well lit, room had no effect on the hood, and left Crow's face completely dark, aside from her glowing eyes which were just as colorless as everything else.

"Wow." Zhan began clapping. "Impressive. Very impressive. So... this guy used the cloaking of the Syndicate clothes to run out. But that doesn't explain how he made his way past all those girls, with a baby."

"Well, no... it doesn't. I... can't really say how he made it out so easily. He was stabbed in the back many times with throwing knives and shuriken. He'd even been shot with a few crossbows all of which were poisoned, but he just kept running... He managed to get out of the main doors, just as they were closed, and re-opening the doors takes a few minutes to do... Which gave him plenty of time to separate himself from us... And even then, we could follow his blood trail."

"Did... _you_ kill him?" Zhan hesitantly asked, gulping nervously. But Crow shook her head, "None of us did. The bastard got away... Even though we trailed him for about two weeks... Years later though, there was mention that _someone_ eventually caught up to, and decapitated him... Although, I'm not sure who."

Zhan held his own neck with his paws when he heard the grim news. "Crap, what a way to go... Well... How did you hear about it? There was no mention as to who did it?"

Crow shook her head, "No... I heard about it from the girls, and this was long long after the break and separation of the Shou-Lie Yin-Ying."

"Girls?" Zhan tilted his head, "You mean... Fu? You have a team now?"

"Well," Crow smiled, thinking about it. "I wouldn't exactly call them a team... They look up to me. I taught them almost everything they knew, after their mother died and their aunt went insane. They're after trying to find any of the three males in their family."

"But... I thought you said," Zhan began to ask, but Crow interrupted preemptively.

"I know what I said, but the grave left behind by their father was completely empty when the kittens went to exhume him from it, so... They believe he's still wandering around somewhere. It was the same story for the brother that _died_ during the birthing... As for the healthy boy... He was the infamous _Tai-Lung_, or... at least I think so, and no one knows where he is right now."

Zhan shrugged his shoulders and began speaking, "But... I thought-" However he was interrupted by Crow again.

"No one knows for sure if Tai-Lung is actually dead, and there's even been a few stories about Tai-Lung and some … apparition hanging out together, but... eh." Crow then shrugged and yawned out loud. "Well I would love to stay up and chat but I should get a few winks before the other girls arrive. The other two can tail Fu-Mai like she's got melting honey stuck to her tail."

"The... other two?" Zhan gasped, "I don't have enough beds for three girls in my home!"

"Um... Four?" Crow playfully giggled, as she watched the color bleed out of Zhan's face.

"Four?" Zhan lowered his shoulders and sighed deeply, while Crow stretched out and lowered her hood, to return color back to her fur and face.

"Well, I think I'm going to go have a nap. Wake me when the others get here, will you?" Crow waved as she exited the dining room, on her way to Zhan's room.

"Not... a... problem..." Zhan remained in the dining room on his own. Once he was certain Crow was out of sight, he stepped back and assumed a heroic stance. Sticking out his chest and placing both fists on his hips like direct sunlight was beaming down on at him. "Four girls." He began to laugh, "Gunna be hard for me to get any work done around here for a while."

The Ocelot quickly stopped his laughing and jubilation while picking up dishes, giving serious thought to what Crow had said earlier.

"She says that there will be two more of them arriving, and they're searching for a bunch of dead men..." He stacked dishes high in his paws, and danced his way to the kitchen to prevent any of his plates or cuts from shattering on the floor. "I wonder if... they'll be able to find what they're looking for. Perhaps, I should visit Grand Master Shifu, and ask around a bit. Hmm... maybe..."

* * *

**A/N: **My apologies for the long delay in chapter updates. I hope I can make updates a lot faster in the future. Thanks for your patience. And for those of you still interested in the _'Blood of the Earth'_, don't worry, I hadn't abandoned it. Master Crane will lead the broken Furious Five and attempt to save everyone from the Shou-Lie Yin-Ying, so if you're a fan of Master Crane, get ready for his tour of duty.

_Utsushi – 'loosely' Duplicate_

_Nijuu – Twenty and/or 'Double'_

_Sayonara – Good Bye_

_Genshuku - Gravity_

_.  
_

_Bo – Rice_

_Gu Dao – Old Road_


	7. Chapter 7

.

.

**Tetsu**

**.**

**VII**

**.**

**.**

_Day 10 : Evening_

_China – The Valley of Peace _

_._

_._

"Money-Money-Moneeeey," This evening, there was singing in Mr. Ping's empty noodle shop. "Money sweeter than honeeey. Money-Money this-Money-Money that. Money will make me pockets fat." Sang the iriomote, marveling over how much she had made in a single day of sales.

"Did you -really- come up with that pathetic excuse for a tune on your own?" Groaned a half-drunken goddess. You couldn't tell this white wolf was a deity at first, but you would be a fool not to think something different of the lupe that was decorated loosely in ancient runes of crimson, and the fact that she sat upon a pillow of seven, or more, flowing tails.

"Huh? What? Oh no, no. Heavens no." Sa-Chi protested with a gentle chuckle in her throat. She was ecstatic over the amount of coin rolling around in her gourd, even though the gourd appeared completely empty. "I heard that song from like... A talking a crab or something."

"..." The wolf was silent.

"_I—_thought it was clever." Sa-Chi stuck her tongue out at the white wolf, "Besides. All you care about is alcohol, young men and _flexible _women..."

Itsuse, the wolf, laughed in her own throat as if she were plotting something. "At least you got the order right, this time."

.

Sa-Chi shook her head in desperation and decided to get back to counting her loot instead of battling with Itsuse's intoxicated wit. "_She looks like a wolf, drinks like a boar, but acts like a starving cougar..."_ Sa-Chi mumbled, while rolling the gourd about in her folded legs. "Hmm... seven hundred seven... seven hundred eight... seven hundred nine..."

Itsuse couldn't help but hear Sa-Chi's smart mouth... She had a sharp tongue, that could be put to better use, but she also had an endless store house of supplies in her mystical vegetable corpse that was a complete enigma to any that thought about how it worked... It often left Itsuse, who had the mind of ten thousand sages, stumped. Certain objects of mystical enchantment had a special property about them that altered certain facts of life... Like the Invisible Trident of Destiny, and the Blade of Heroes... but Sa-Chi's gourd wasn't a weapon... and it still had unworldly powers... Something that kept Itsuse's sober mind in torrents, which was why she had to drink and drink... It kept her mind off every conundrum that life had to offer.

.

"Sa-Chi." Itsuse called out, interrupting the feline's counting.

"Hmm? Hmm-hmm-twenty nine..." Sa-Chi half responded while keeping her mind mostly focused on money.

"What came first? The chicken or the egg?" Itsuse cleverly asked, disguising her intentions behind an enigma.

"Hmm-eleventy-four... The what? Oh..." Sa-Chi paused, then glanced up at the darkening sky for a moment. "What came first?"

"Yes, which came first?" Itsuse grinned.

"Clearly the Rooster, that knocked up the old girl in the first place." Sa-Chi replied, turning back to glance at Itsuse. "Has all the alcohol finally rotted your brain? You don't normally ask such . . . stupid questions."

.

Itsuse chuckled and rose from her seat. She, and Sa-Chi had been occupying Mr. Ping's shop for nearly twenty hours now. Itsuse, at first, indulged herself in the free alcohol that was provided by Sa-Chi due to the fact that she was missing her gourd, and wishing to avoid a strange experience with a _willing _goddess. But after Sa-Chi, mysteriously, regained possession of her sacred gourd, Itsuse was graced with the refreshing taste of naturally distilled _Sake_ instead of the generally cheap alcohol that Mr. Ping served. Although with better drinks, came more questions and no answers...

"I have a request." Itsuse began, fanning her tails behind her as she approached Sa-Chi. Sa-Chi's eyes grew wide, seeing the hungry look in the white wolf's eyes, and she planted her gourd between her and the butch as a shield.

"Hey-Hey! I said I wasn't _that way!_ I'll serve you as much alcohol as you want, but keep your hands... Err... Fingers... Tail... Feet... Tongue and Ears away from me!"

Itsuse began blinking, again confused, somehow managing to be confused through intoxication. "Um... Ears?"

"I've... Seen... Things, Itsuse. _Freaky things..._ "

"Wh-"

"I _don't_ want to mentally re-live it... What—did you want anyway?" The Iriomote shuddered, silently cursing even knowing how to read _Indian_ script.

"I, well... Want to know more about your Gourd." Itsuse stated, straight and clean. She took a seat at Sa-Chi's table, which she could do because she had no intention of asking for more, and she was closer to the drinks.

.

"My... Gourd?" Sa-Chi looked confused for a moment, then she turned to the giant _pot_, sitting between her and the horny white wolf. "Oh... You mean _this_ Gourd."

"Yes...-That gourd, Sa-Chi. Can you tell me more about it?" Itsuse leaned against the table, propping her head up with one arm.

"Er... Well... It's a precious heirloom that belonged to my family. That's... mostly it, honestly. Well... aside from the _virtually_ unlimited storage space, and the fact that the Gourd intercepts light slower than normal."

"...What?" Itsuse began blinking again, trying to kick start her brain like a stubborn ox. "_Intercept light __**slower**__ than normal? _Are... you saying that stuff inside the gourd, stands still? Like, frozen?"

"Something of the sort... It seems like the Gourd makes days shoot by in hours, whenever I'm inside of it... and if I put, let's say, a hot coal into the pot, I can retrieve it, a day or so later and it's still smoldering."

"That's... indeed interesting, Sa-Chi. Can you explain how it does this?"

"No." The iriomote immediately responded, as if she were hiding something.

"No? Why not?" Itsuse's ears fell against her head suddenly, while her lips curled backwards in a snarl. "Or are you expecting payment for such mystic information?"

"Not... particularly," Sa-Chi began to lean away from Itsuse. "It's more because I don't exactly—remember, how it does it. I didn't actually... receive this from my family. I just stole it when I ran away, so I barely have any idea how it works, I just know that it holds more than a wallet, weighs less than a _Gohan_ Cart, and I can't ever lose it, because it follows me like a lost dog."

.

"Is... that why you have it again? I was... wondering about that too." The wolf began to laugh and stretched back, now focusing her attention on the panda that was closing up Mr. Ping's shop. "Oh my..."

"Huh?" Sa-Chi hardly had time to ask what Itsuse was mumbling about before her eyes caught the same specimen. "Whoa... Is that a... Yeah, it's that panda girl. She's still working? This late?"

.

The two loitering females were talking about, Li-Tang, the panda. She was Po's replacement, and has been for a few months now. Mr. Ping wasn't always able to maintain a _100%_ satisfaction rate in his shop without a second hand to aide him. He could easily pull a _95,_ or slightly better when it came to customer satisfaction, but his skill lacked the finesse of having a partner to cook with. And along came Li-Tang... At first, Mr. Ping wasn't sure about hiring a female panda... Not so much because she was actually female _or_ the fact that she was a panda, but he didn't really want to rent out Po's room to _anyone_ because of the sentiment attached. But after a short while, Mr. Ping allowed Li-Tang to work for him, knowing that Po would understand that he always had a home at his Dad's shop . . . just . . . not in the same room, or at least not without being invited.

.

Li-Tang was far more muscular than most women. She had visible muscles under her monochrome tinted fur, and her statue was about the size of Tai-Lung, so she wasn't the tallest woman in a crowd, but she surely wasn't as short as the ducks and Pigs that were constantly being served in the shop. She also wasn't very fond of the low hanging ceiling in Mr. Ping's shop but her back was strong enough to deal with the occasional crouching and squatting. Li-Tang surely wasn't average, and that uniqueness is what made her stand out to both Sa-Chi and Itsuse... Both women were staring as Li-Tang was sweeping up dirt and spills off the dining floor, and both were staring for different reasons...

.

The cleaning bear stretched her back and complained for a moment. "Gah... I think I'm starting to get an ache from bending over so much... I think I'll cut three times as much prep tomorrow morning, so I can stay on the floor and deliver orders."

"Hmm, sounds like you need a good massage." Itsuse smoothly cooed at the Panda.

"Wha...?" Li-Tang spun on her dial, to see Sa-Chi sitting back gawking. "Er... Can, I ask why you're still here?"

"Admiring Beauty." Itsuse smiled, grating her claws against the table she was at, while Sa-Chi was mostly silent, and awestruck, but she found words after a moment or two.

.

"I... was just counting my coins. You're... you've been working here all day?"

Li-Tang rose a brow at the twisted jumble of words that stumbled past Sa-Chi's teeth and gums, trying to understand why she was hearing more than one voice. "Yeah ok... What is the other voice I'm hearing?"

"Voice?" Sa-Chi sat up, completely confused, then turned to Itsuse who was laughing into her collage of tails. "You—mean her? She's been undressing you with her eyes all day?"

"...Undressing... What? Who?" Li-Tang frowned, and threw down her broom. "What are you talking about? I don't see anyone else here."

"Are you kidding me? She's been drinking me out of my hard earned profits since morning!" Sa-Chi argued.

"Ok coo-coo... I hadn't had an imaginary friend since I was two, but they surely didn't drink so... I'm gunna hafta ask you to leave so I can clean up—In Peace."

.

Itsuse started laughing out loud now, "Oh this is glorious!"

"What?" Li-Tang barked, curling her paws into fists.

"I didn't say anything!" Sa-Chi defended herself, and pointed both paws at Itsuse. "It was her! How can you not see her?"

"I can't see her because I'm not bat-shit crazy lady! Now get out of here before I bounce your foreign ass!" Li-Tang threatened, reaching for a chair.

.

"Hey!" Sa-Chi stood up, "One second."

Li-Tang parleyed, but she didn't release the chair, making it very clear that she had no patience for things she didn't understand.

"Hey..." Sa-Chi turned to Itsuse again, "Why can't she see you? How can she hear you, but not see you?"

"Because," Itsuse turned to Sa-Chi with a sinister grin on her white face. "I'm dead."

"Well no shit... What does tha... Oh hell... You're a ghost and she can't see them."

.

"...A... Ghost? A drinking ghost? A bi-curious ghost? You expect me to believe that sh-"

"Hold on!" Sa-Chi barked this time, cutting off Li-Tang's rant.

"Ok look, I have a lot of cleaning to do, so I can get to sleep and start up this process of cooking, serving, cleaning and sleeping tomorrow... So either present your case or get the hell out of my store."

.

Itsuse turned to Sa-Chi, grinning like a psychopath. "Tell the woman I'll allow her to see me, if she agrees _not_ to hit you with the chair in her possession."

"W-" Sa-Chi, barely pondered the request before she spoke it, turning to the angered panda. "Itsuse says she'll reveal herself if you don't hit me with that chair."

Li-Tang's angry face turned into a cocky smile, hearing Sa-Chi's insane plea. "Is that so? Well let's see it, I don't have much time to finish up and relax before I need to sleep."

.

Sa-Chi nodded and turned to, the apparently invisible, Itsuse. "Well, she won't bludgeon me. So do your thing, whatever that thing is..."

"Alright," The wolf rose to her feet, stretching out her arms and rolling her shoulders, swaying her chest and hips as she did so. "Tell her to not scream either."

"Um... try not to scream." Sa-Chi slowly explained while turning to Li-Tang. The Panda shook her head and rolled her eyes, not understanding what there was to scream about—until she felt a very strong presence on her ass and a wet presence in her mouth. There was hardly time for the Panda to recognize the tattooed figure molesting her before she threw it across the store.

.

Itsuse went flying past Sa-Chi's head like a flock of ghostly Crow's, all laughter and evil, but she didn't crash and crumble like any normal person would have... Instead, the white wolf began to float upward and slowly descended to the table she had been sitting at before, floating down on her many swirling tails.

Li-Tang's muscles were tense and pulsing with the urge to punch. She hated whenever someone groped at her, or even whistled at her in a lecherous manner but... she had just been ghost groped by a dead woman... or that's at least the best she could describe it; based on stories of the Raunchy Rhino that haunts the forest at night.

.

"What in the hell was that?" Li-Tang shouted, trying to come to terms with what just happened. "You're a ghost? A horny ghost?"

Itsuse tilted her head to one side, as if she were thinking for a moment, then nodded. "Yes, you can say that. Yes, I am."

Sa-Chi covered her eyes with both hands. "Oh god..."

"You can call me that too." Itsuse flicked her tails with a grin, "A god, goddess rather..."

.

"A, horny goddess? Well whatever..." Li-Tang shuddered, not understanding what she was feeling. "I don't... have time for any of this. Thanks for the... forward, very forward, introduction but I need to finish cleaning."

Sa-Chi sighed deeply, capping and seizing her gourd. "Well yeah, I need to find a place to stay for tonight."

Itsuse's observed Sa-Chi and Li-Tang for a moment longer before she announced her own suggestion, or rather solution to all their problems. "You know, I can solve your problem for you Miss Panda."

"The name is Li-Tang," The Panda half-hissed, "And what are you getting at? You're not planning any more smooth moves are you?"

"I can't confirm, nor deny my intentions, but..." Itsuse snapped her fingers, summoning a fog to flood the floor of the shop. It crept in like a malicious cat, that consumed everything on the ground to such a serious degree, Li-Tang couldn't even see her black toes past the few inches of thick haze that occupied the dining floor.

The Panda exhaled deeply, "Great... now I can't see my trash past all this fog." She grumbled and crouched down to find her broom in the fog, and began sweeping away the mist... Only to discover that when she pushed her broom, the stone and dirt under her feet appeared to be almost _glowing_ with sanitation. "Holy..."

.

"Unholy, to be literal." Itsuse laughed, "But, yes, a simple procedure like cleaning floors and surfaces can be finished in a blink of an eye with my aide, Miss Li-Tang."

"Well damn!" Li-Tang began to laugh, swinging her broom around and sweeping away fog, to reveal _clean dirt._ It was remarkable and completely unheard of.

"It's even scented like fresh bamboo and the dew of a peaceful sunrise." The wolf goddess laughed.

"Very cool, although I think it's going to take me a bit longer to clean up all this fog than it would to sweep, but... It's so clean that I could probably skip sweeping for a few nights! Thanks." Li-Tang hastily returned to sweeping, cleaning out whole sections of fog in a short burst of time, but it was still slower than normal sweeping.

.

Itsuse was very coy as she turned back to Sa-Chi. "Aren't you going to cut through the fog with your swords, Sa-Chi?"

The Iriomote was completely distracted by the fact that _Clean Dirt_ existed, and she was pondering how much she could get for a handfull, or even a satchel full of it. But Itsuse's comment jolted her back to reality. "Huh? Swords? Fog? Cut? Oh yeah, easy easy."

"Huh?" Li-Tang stopped sweeping to observe Sa-Chi re-entering the store and reaching slowly for one of her three katanas. "Cut the fog?"

"Well, move, really. It's as easy as... _One,"_ Sa-Chi placed her paw on her second Katana. "_Two!"_ The iriomote swung her blade swiftly, in one powerful motion straight from it's scabbard and out into the cold night air. The swing was so powerful, every ounce of fog was blown away by a furious wind, almost like that of a tornado or a twister. Li-Tang and Itsuse both had to close their eyes and resist being blown away for a short moment while the torrent roared through their ears.

"_Three!"_ Sa-Chi announced, and returned the blade back to it's sheath, again in one smooth motion.

.

Li-Tang and Itsuse both opened their eyes slowly to marvel at the sight before them. _Clean Dirt._

"Wow!" Li-Tang began laughing. "Wow! It's clean, very clean... And it smells like _Peaceful Morning Dew_!"

"And bamboo!" Sa-Chi quickly added, while rubbing her paws together.

.

Li-Tang turned to Itsuse, to shake the wolf goddess' paw, and thank her, but once Li-Tang got within grabbing distance... a very different expression bled onto Itsuse's face. She, at first, looked happy and joyous, but as soon as Li-Tang touched her arm with a paw, her face shifted to one of lust and hunger.

"Whoa-" The Panda gasped, "You scare people when you do that, you know."

"Pity." Itsuse grinned, lacing her fingers in Li-Tang's paw. "Now... I'll be needing payment for my services."

"Huh? Payment?" Li-Tang frowned, but she was cut off before she could truly begin complaining.

"My... associate and I require a room for the night, and I think yours should suffice." The wolf proclaimed, grinning like a vulture after a bloody meal.

.

"My... room? For some _Clean Dirt!_ Why? And I only have ONE bed!" Li-Tang grunted, pulling her hand free. "Besides! I'm not _weird..._ like that, lady."

"Both of you say that," Itsuse chuckled, "But I can smell it on each of you. I am a goddess of the night after all, and if there's any one thing I understand, aside from the dead... is lust."

Sa-Chi glanced up from what she was doing, "Do what?"

Li-Tang turned to Sa-Chi, "This horny old bat wants to sleep _with us_ in _my bed_..."

"Us?" Sa-Chi sat up quickly, dropping the large handful of dirt she was gathering. "Why?"

"Both of you owe me." Itsuse laughed out loud, "And I'm afraid there's no arguing with a god when we've aided someone."

.

Li-Tang's curiosity slowly began to get the best of her. "I'm... not sure about this. Look, I just want to get some sleep ok?"

"There will be plenty of time for sleep." Itsuse smiled, turning to Sa-Chi who was digging up more dirt, and attempting to scoop it into a small pouch she was carrying.

.

"W-what are you planning?" The goddess took Li-Tang in one of her giant tails. Wrapping the white and red fibers around the muscular panda with ease and lifted her off the floor like she only weighed ten pounds.

"Holy sh... Gaah! What are you doing?" Li-Tang shrieked, unable to understand how a _tail_ could lift her off the ground. Itsuse, on the other hand, ignored Li-Tang's gasps and struggling. Instead she rushed over to Sa-Chi and snatched the iriomote in her tails like she did the panda and approached the open gourd.

"Hey! My dirt! My dirt!" Sa-Chi gasped, stretching out her paws like an infant trying to recover their lost toy.

"Oh quit struggling, we won't be gone anymore than a moment." And without another word, Itsuse dove towards Sa-Chi's gourd... Diving in and vanishing like a fish into a pond...

…

…

… Then silence...

…

…

A short moment later, Li-Tang, Itsuse and Sa-Chi all erupt from the mouth of the gourd and roll onto the clean floor of Mr. Ping's shop. Each of them appeared fatigued, for _some_ reason, and lightly panting, as if they only gathered half their strength before leaving the gourd.

"Oh... my god..." Li-Tang shook and shuddered, constantly readjusting her shirt, even though it was on, but her heart wouldn't stop beating and it was playing tricks on her mind. "What...what time is it... I … I need to cut … onions, and... S-scale... fish."

Itsuse's long hair was matted and sweaty, appearing to look more like a drowned cat than a beautiful flowing head of snow white hair. She sat up, glowing with satisfaction and trembling with fatigue. "You've only been gone... um... I don't know heh heh." The wolf started to laugh, but soon exchanged her laughter for panting.

.

Sa-Chi was lying on her back. Her tail wasn't animated in the least, and her spine felt as though it was the eye of a storm, spinning and twisting like the world was coming to an end. Her farmers hat was completely missing, and her head of purple hair was draped down over her face. Sa-Chi was panting heavily and still rolling her back and hips like she was stuck in the moment. "I'm... not... sure... I think... thirty seconds? Strange, time worked in our favor, instead of against us... I still," Sa-Chi gasped and shuddered for a moment. "B-barely... know how that thing works..."

.

Itsuse rolled over to flop onto her back, laughing loudly. "Thirty seconds?"

Li-Tang, instead, sat up, holding her sweaty upper body up with both trembling arms. "You're kidding... There's... no way we... were... for... thirty seconds."

Itsuse grabbed her own chest for a moment, licking her lips. "With the power of that merchant's gourd, it was. Time slows down in the gourd, and if we weren't _constantly_ touching one another, we would have been paralyzed."

Sa-Chi flicked her head back, to move her hair so she could half-glare at Itsuse. "You know_ too_ much... and learn _too_ fast."

"I think I _know_ enough to get what I want, and I _learn_ fast enough. We were done in _thirty seconds_ after all." The goddess laughed out loud, slowly peeling herself off the floor.

"Jeez," Li-Tang was still breathing fairly heavily. "I... think my parents would laugh if they heard about this..."

.

Sa-Chi sat up, now sitting on her knees. "Why? Because it was only _thirty seconds _long?"

Itsuse chuckled, "I think because it was with two girls, instead of one man." The wolf rose to her feet for a moment, but had to bend forward and grab her knees in order to keep from falling. Even her tails were less animated, and suffering from fatigue.

"So how many hours do you actually think we were gone? Or at least, inside that... thing?" Li-Tang pulled herself to her feet, and adjusted her shirt again, swearing that the others would be able to still see her excited figure through the thin weave of her shirt.

.

"Four?" Sa-Chi ball parked the number, standing up and falling forward to grab Li-Tang's shoulders from behind. "Sorry about that."

"I thought it was longer." Itsuse began to walk, but tripped over herself and fell towards Li-Tang, seizing her shoulders from the front. "Heh heh, excuse me."

"Uh... No problem." Li-Tang half laughed, feeling her heart beat starting to amp up again. But before anything could publicly happen, the thin, bouncy voice of Mei-Ling flooded the ears of the sweaty females.

.

"Is this a sharing circle or something? Or... and intervention?" Mei-Ling was stepping back slowly and cautiously.

Itsuse turned to Sa-Chi and Li-Tang, who were looking back and forth at each other.

"I'm spent." Li-Tang laughed, "Maybe another uh... _minute_."

"Yeah." Sa-Chi chuckled and released the other two women so she could return to collecting her dirt.

.

Itsuse, now assuming a motherly role instead of a lecherous one, turned to Mei-Ling with a gentle smile. "It was nothing, dear. How was your day? I haven't seen you since we arrived. Have you and Tetsu been enjoying yourselves?"

Mei-Ling raised an eyebrow, but responded instead of being suspicious. "I hadn't actually seen Tetsu all day. I went to visit one of my friends, and when I came back to the hotel Tetsu wasn't there, so I thought I'd go looking for him. But I guess he's not here either."

"No, I've been here all day, and I hadn't seen that man of yours." Itsuse responded, "But you say he's not with you? You're not worried are you?"

Mei-Ling shook her head, "No, no I'm not. Just curious... and why do... you smell like you've been bench pressing a fishing boat?"

.

Before Mei-Ling could get a proper response, she was suddenly assaulted by the razor sharp glares of Sa-Chi and Li-Tang from inside the store. Even Itsuse's face had shifted from happy, to indifferent, but Mei-Ling didn't stick around to get an answer. "As... a matter of fact. Never mind, I'm going back to the hotel so I can take advantage of their hot spring."

The ears of the three other females all perked up at once, "Hot Spring?" They practically grunted and coughed all at once.

"Um... Yeah? Did you girls want to come too? It's always better with friends." Mei-Ling smiled, invitingly.

Itsuse placed a paw on Mei-Ling's head, and ruffled the short hairs on her head like she was a wayward kitten. "So innocent, lead on."

.

"Innocent?" Mei-Ling repeated, confused.

"Perhaps you'll see one day." Itsuse chuckled and turned to Li-Tang. "Hey, your bursting out of your shirt."

"Wha-Gaah!" The Panda shouted and quickly adjusted her shirt again, cursing silently to herself for not noticing earlier.

Mei-Ling's cheeks bled red for a moment, but she turned away from the train wreck of female companionship behind her, and instead lead the group to the hot spring located near the hotel.

**.**

**.**

_Day 10 : Evening_

_China – Bo Gu Dao Road_

_._

_._

Normally, the first thing a hospitable individual would say to a guest would be, _'Hello_', or '_Welcome to my home'_, but that would be a normal situation, and for this Trap Merchant and expert... Normal could never describe his life or the situations within... His lightning quick reflexes were a god send, and it saved him many times throughout his life, and if not for those same reflexes he would be the second headless feline to become a Chinese legend, following Shen-Mao of course...

.

"WHA!" Zhan shouted, "That almost hit me! What's the deal?" The Ocelot half panicked, barely managing to duck a flurry of shuriken.

"YOU!" Shouted one of the two faceless assassins that was standing in the road in front of Zhan's shop. "I REMEMBER YOU!" The Wu-Sister was furious, she was shouting and roaring at the top of her lungs. She sank an arm into her dark cloak, and pulled out a giant shuriken. "You're going to pay!"

"Jeez..." The other cloaked feline laughed. "Old flings die hard huh?"

"W-what? WHAT?" Zhan's heart was beating swiftly, and every fur on his body was telling him to roll right... _'ROLL RIGHT! Cool Weapon! ROLL YOU CRETIN!' Instinctively_, Zhan's dodged right, to avoid the Giant throwing star. Instead the projectile wedged itself into the molding of the front door of the weapon shop.

.

"You missed," commented the second cloaked assassin. She was clearly laughing under her shroud, but it didn't do anything to improve the situation, instead... it only made it worse.

"Lady!" Zhan shouted. "I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Remember the fishing house?" The first assassin again, searched her cloak for a weapon and this time, presented a long dangerously sharp scythe from her hidden armory. "Remember your Weapon Shop?"

"Um... that was a long time ago. A long time ago! Are you an old customer?"

"Hahaha," The second assassin laughed. "Old. He called you old!"

"I didn't mean it that way!" Zhan dove off his porch and into the road, to avoid the Scythe that managed to get itself wedged into the deck of the shop instead of sliding out, like it would normal wood.

.

"What manner of trap is this, Ocelot?" The blade wielding Assassin turned and snarled venomously, leaving her weapon where it sat.

"It's a special wood that I use in my traps." Zhan lightly laughed, scratching the back of his head. "I soak the wood in sap to make the wood more durable than normal, and it repairs itself when it gets damaged."

"Whoa," The second assassin, who was standing off to one side, clapped. "Impressive. How does wood repair itself when it's damaged?"

"It doesn't matter..." The first assassin hissed, and dove at Zhan, but the Ocelot jumped over the assassin and landed back onto the deck. He shouted as he ran towards the Scythe, and was forced to jump again to dodge the sharp blade that could probably cut air and people in half like milk cream. Zhan wanted to sigh to relax, but he turned to see that he was diving right into one of the sharp points of the Giant Shurkien that was wedged into his front door molding, and at just the perfect angle to stab his brain out if he wasn't fast enough to spin in air and land on his back. He slid under the dark projectile and off the porch and into the road once again, but now he was on the other side of the house.

.

"W-why are you attacking me? I haven't done anything wrong!" Zhan stood up and shouted, but he didn't see the assassin that wanted him dead... Or better yet, he didn't think so. All he saw was the second cloaked creature, who was just standing around with a hand on her hip in a saucy manner. Zhan turned to the visible assassin, with the intent of asking what was going on, but she pointed upwards... or better yet above his head, and Zhan could feel the hairs talking to his head again, and they said... '_Roll Left'._

.

"RAAAH!" The assassin descended on Zhan like a meteor, slamming a giant WarHammer into the dirt, completely missing the lighting swift Trapsmith. He had rolled out of the way just in time to save his skin, but not his hat... Zhan panted nervously, revealing a lot of his face now that the WarHammer had taken out a solid chunk of the straw like it had been carefully cut out with a knife. He knew that if he was only a moment slower, he would have been pulverized.

"What are you doing? Why are you fighting me?" Zhan argued with the hooded madwoman, but she didn't respond with words, only actions.

.

'_Duck backwards...'_ Spoke the hairs to the Ocelot's brain, and he did without hesitation... The giant WarHammer went sailing above the Ocelot's arched body. And he was awarded with the excited claps of the second Assassin who was more than happy to watch his displays of agility. Zhan was disappointed that he couldn't share in her jubilation because his life was at risk. He stood up straight to witness the Assassin charging at him with two daggers in each her paws, with the clear intent of stabbing out Zhan's organs, but he listened to the frightened hairs all over his body, and jumped straight into the air to land on the roof of his home.

.

The assassin followed relentlessly, and stabbed her daggers into the walls of his home to climb faster, only to lose her weapons in the process, forgetting that the tempered wood would _steal_ your weapons if you dared to stab them. The Assassin dove up to the roof to meet Zhan, brandishing a hook in one paw, and a heavy weight in her other. Both ends of the weapon were attached by a long heavy chain as well, which she began to spin the hook around by the grace of the chain. "Catch this!" The frenzied hunter shouted and flung the chain at Zhan's head.

.

The Ocelot ducked low, and rolled to one side to avoid the hook, and kept his head low to avoid the hook returning … that is _if_ it was going to return, the hook had gotten stuck in the wood of his roof as well.

"Is your _ENTIRE _house made of this damn wood, Ocelot!"

Zhan scratched his head, "Uh... yeah." He laughed nervously, and bowed his head to apologize, but this gave the Assassin enough time to snare the Ocelot instead of losing another weapon.

.

She landed on the roof, and threw the weight on the other end of the heavy chain like a baseball. The chain caught Zhan around his ankle, and before he was able to leap away from it, the chain had begun spinning around Zhan like a tether ball. It tied up his legs, and quickly spun to wrap his waist, arms, and shoulders, inching closer and closer to his face. The Ocelot knew that the weight was evil, evil and sinister, and it was going to run out of chain at the perfect moment so that it would spin directly into his face like a dodgeball, or better yet, like a mace...

.

The Assassin watched anxiously as the weight spun closer and closer to the temple of the Ocelot, and Zhan shut his eyes tightly, not wishing to see the heavy metal object spin into his face. But at the moment where he was going to be struck, he felt nothing... He could no longer feel the cold chain coiling around his body like a dark metal snake... But he knew he wasn't dreaming, or else he'd be in bed right now and not stuck on his roof. Slowly, he opened one eye, to see the second assassin was now on the roof, slowly approaching him. And he opened the other to confirm it.

.

Zhan's hat was still on his head, even though it was badly damaged, so he couldn't exactly make out the figure standing next to him, but inside... he knew who it was.

.

And it was confirmed when the figure spoke...

"What the hell is going on out here? What's the matter with you? Have you lost your natural cat mind?" It was Crow, to Zhan's rescue... like the good old days... Since there actually _were_ good old days.

"Mother Crow?" The malicious Assassin gasped, and she fell to a knee, bowing before Crow.

Zhan exhaled deeply, "Crow. I'm glad to see you!"

"I bet you are," Crow smiled and turned than, then gasped out loud. "Wh-what happened? Did she harm you?" Crow was horrified at the fact that Zhan's hat had been damaged in the fight.

"Oh no, no. I was more shocked than anything else." Zhan confessed with a laugh, patiently waiting to get the circulation in his arms back.

.

"REIKA!" Crow roared at the top of her lungs. Both cloaked females jumped back, but the kneeling one stepped forward.

"M-mother Crow..." She was a lot less hostile now, for good reason.

"I know I didn't instruct you _not_ to attack the resident of this shop and that's technically my fault... But you are _never_ to brandish a weapon at this man, with the intent to harm him... Do I make myself clear?"

"Y-yes mo-"

"DO-I-MAKE-MYSELF—CLEAR, REIKA!" Crow shouted even louder, again making both cloaked females almost fall backwards on their butts from fear.

"YES! Y-yes Mother Crow." The Assassin, named Reika, bowed. "I'm sorry, I'm very sorry."

.

"Well that's good..." Crow exhaled deeply, and turned to Zhan, who was turning purple. "Oops... Let's get you... unraveled shall we?" Crow threw the weight in the opposite direction, and allowed cylindrical force unravel the trap merchant, and after a moment of tedious spinning and rattling, Zhan was freed.

"Now, young one... Why _did_ you attack Zhan?" Crow turned to Reika, leaning forward to push away her hood and stroke her cheek. "I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings by the way."

"It's ok..." Reika responded, exhaling deeply and opening her eyes, to reveal their vibrant blue shimmer.

.

"X-Xing?" Zhan gasped, "Oh wow! It's been so long! How've you been?"

"I've been brooding, Zhan..." Reika responded with a huff, turning her head swiftly so she wouldn't have to look at the merchant.

.

"Um..." Crow paused to think, "You... two... know each other? From when?"

"Long ago." Both Zhan and Reika responded at once, but the second assassin instead stepped forward to speak.

"Mother Crow, you know Reika has uh... _Attitude Issues,_" Which was made apparent, by the unhooded assassin, taking a swing at her sister. Knocking her hood clear off, revealing her glowing jade eyes, and a soft, spotted, snow leopard face, that had been slightly marred with battle scars. "See?"

.

Crow sighed, and placed an arm around Reika, who responded by hugging Crow in a forgiving manner... All of this was... fairly strange to Zhan, who never knew Crow had the skills to lead a team, none the less, be a mom but... Then again, Zhan didn't know much about Crow, and he knew even less about her skills as being a leader and mother figure... But they were apparently good.

"You can explain the story to me later, Sai. Take Rei, and go check on your sister. She's sleeping right now, she's got a bit of chi scarring on her stomach and legs, so be careful with her alright?"

"_Chi scarring,_ on her legs?" Sai's face scrunched up like she's eaten something nasty. "That's weird, but, we'll be careful... So... when do you want us to tell you about our mission?"

"Later on, children, much later. Now go inside, and mind your manners, we're Guests in Zhan's home after all." Crow shouted after both the assassin's as they dove off the roof, leaving Crow and Zhan alone to … chat.

.

Zhan was still a bit awestruck at what was going on. "So... you're a mother?"

"Not even close. I told you, they look up to me." Crow laughed and waved an arm in the air, trying to hide her blush by keeping her hood on.

Zhan was quiet for a moment, but leaned forward. "You _enjoy_ being called '_Mother Crow'_ don't you?"

Crow stood back, laughing to herself, seriously trying to mask what she was thinking and feeling. "Don't be silly, they're just aimless children that needed a positive role model, is all."

"You told me you trained them to kill! How is that positive? And the one went all... Crazy... Swing Slash, Heavenly Sword on me!" Zhan expressed himself by swinging his arms through the air like they were scimitars and katanas.

.

Crow laughed and pulled off her hood, returning color to her face. "Yeah, well... They knew how to do that long before I met them then, because I never knew the _mean one_ had a crush on you 'till today. They don't mention their past very much... or... ever, honestly."

"Weeeeellll, I wouldn't exactly call it a crush, you see-" Zhan had begun to laugh a bit, and was going to piece together an explanation of why Reika, or better yet, Xing, might have behaved the way she did, although once he began to think about... "Their past?" The history of the three Wu Sisters, his attention, went else where. "They... didn't have a home when I knew them... They were uh... Mercenaries."

.

Crow nodded solemnly, "Young, homeless, frightened … mercenaries." Crow sighed, but there was a smile on her face instead of anything else. "I couldn't leave them on their own... I knew who they were, and... "

Zhan held up both hands. "Hey-,Say no more. I understand. You're still a bad ass deadly assassin, as far as I'm concerned. Especially if the Wu Sisters, listen to you."

Crow smiled, but she didn't say anything. Her smile said a lot more than she could in a million years, but there was something else bothering her that needed to be brought to attention.

.

"Hey, Zhan... How hard would it be to get these weapons out of your house? I think a Shop, covered in knives, scythes and metal is a bit... uh..."

"Suspicious and Frightening?" Zhan threw out the first two words he could think of. "Yeah, I think so too... I'd hate for customers to be scared off by a blade sticking out of the front door."

**.**

**.**

_Day 11 : Midnight_

_China – The Valley Below the Bridge_

_._

_._

"These pathetic cries of agony are grating on my last nerve..." Tai-Shen was growling, while treading through the insect infested gorge that separated him from the road, leading to the Valley of Peace. The Valley of Peace was where Tai-Lung was, Tai-Shen he knew it, and that's where he was headed. "This mindless wailing is going to drive a hole in my head... I don't know how anyone could stand to be down here, none the less actually do this much screaming... Where is it coming from?" The black panther hissed to the sheets of colorless haze all around him, "Is this a man? Or a dying animal?"

.

Tai-Shen wasn't impressed in the intensity of the fog, nor was he overjoyed to be walking through it... But he was following the only available path to Tai-Lung that didn't require him to use his chi... He'd been forced to actually reveal his powers only two times since his reincarnation, and both times were marring his name and fueling the fear of the nation... Tai-Shen wasn't interested in becoming a demon. He didn't want people to fear him on sight, and he surely didn't want young legends trying to hunt him down to obtain a title for themselves... All he was interested in, was retrieving Tai-Lung, and returning to his temporary base of operations. Although, Tai-Shen was having difficulty with staying focused on his goal due to the loud howls of death that surrounded him at all times.

"WILL YOU JUST DIE ALREADY?" Tai-Shen threw back his head and roared out into the gorge... Desperately wishing the howls would cease, but his outburst only managed to make the howling worse... much much worse... Now, it sounded as though there was more than a single voice of agony all around him. As if the very insects that he was crushing under foot were adding to the wails of the dead... but that wasn't the case, thankfully. Instead, all around him, shambling figures began to rise from the ocean of carrion bugs.

"Oh perfect... Retaliation is it?" The black panther gritted his fangs, watching the tall mounds of insects slowly start to fall apart, to reveal skeletons, wielding rusty blades and spears... Clearly of bandit grade. "I don't have time for this..." Tai-Shen cursed, and rushed towards one of the skeletons that was only partially uncovered from insects, and punched it's loose head, clean off it's spine. The other skeletons, being undead, still apparently had emotion and gasped as best they could witnessing Tai-Shen's unwillingness to participate.

The black panther seized the curved blade from the decomposed hand of the headless skeleton and kicked away the rest of the body, sending loose bones all across the shifting surface of insects. "I-Don't-Have-Time-FOR THIS!" He repeated himself, and flung the blade at another of the many skinless defenders of the Valley. The flying sword decapitated another skeleton while the Black Panther dove at another two of them... The skeletons weren't even free from the hold of the insects before over half of them had been dispatched. Tai-Shen wasn't interested in a fair fight with the undead right now anyway... By the time the insects had finally released their guardians from their suppressive grip, there was only one unharmed skeleton left to fight, and the minute he attempted to step forward, Tai-Shen impaled him with the weapon of another fallen skeleton.

"Get out of my way..." The black panther hissed and hoisted the skeleton into the air, flinging him like a heavy sack of laundry. The undead warrior probably didn't feel a thing from the stolen spear being rammed through his empty rib cage, but he'd surely feel what was to happen next... "...Now lay down!" Tai-Shen roared and round house kicked the skeleton on his descent, connecting the back of his heel to his opponents chest and shattering his weak frame across the heavy bed of insects. Tai-Shen returned to his stance, and held his spear taut in one hand, scanning for any more skeletal defenders. But he saw, and heard nothing... Surprisingly, the shouts of horror had ceased...

"Hmm..." Tai-Shen scratched his chin, "It can't be that easy..." And with that phrase, the howls of agony returned. He dropped the spear and clutched his ears with both paws. "GAAAHH! WILL YOU GIVE IT A REST?" The black panther roared out in his own version of pain, but the shouting didn't ebb, instead, it only got louder... and louder... and just when Tai-Shen was going to succumb to his anger and shift to a much less sane state... The shouting died out again...

"Huh...?" The black panther, stood still, and opened his ears. "Silence...?" He opened his eyes, to see a tall figure standing in front of him. "Oh, glorious..."

"Glory...?" The mysterious figure responded to Tai-Shen, swinging his heavy tail around behind him. "You are not my enemy, mortal... I n-"

"MORTAL?" Tai-Shen almost allowed his rage to get the better of him. His eyes were burning red with fury but he'd been struggling with his rage for decades... today, wasn't going to break him. "My... apologies..." The black panther sighed deeply, "Who are you, and what is it that you need, exactly?"

Tai-Shen took a moment to examine the creature in front of him, even though it wasn't very important... He planning on killing his fool and being on his way, but it was both courteous and the way of the Japanese to at least exchange names, before you cut a man's head off. This creature was, different from the other people that Tai-Shen had ran into... He was a lizard, but Tai-Shen wasn't sure of exactly what... A Komodo Dragon? A horned Lizard of some kind... An Iguana perhaps? He was a man of unrealistic stature, standing somewhere around eleven feet tall. His muscles were large, much larger than Tai-Lung's and his face appeared much older than even Tai-Shen's... He was a deity... All of his large scales were a deep, but faded, green that was tipped with white hues... As if his scales were starting to shed, but Tai-Shen had an idea that those scales looked that way for years.

"I am _Rang Dou, _A deity..." The giant horned lizard huffed before Shen-Mao. He was wearing armor on his chest, and down both his large legs... But his face and arms were completely bare of any plating or protection. Tai-Shen couldn't imagine why a giant lizard would need to wear plated armor, but he wasn't going to ask... "I am looking for my wife... Itsuse..."

"Itsuse..." Tai-Shen shook his head, exhaling deeply. "I haven't seen her... Nor are your martial troubles any of my business..."

Rang Dou was standing before the black panther with both his large arms crossed over his chest. His armor was tinted green, similar to his scales, but his armor was much shinier than his aged hide. He huffed again, expelling a thick bed of fog that surrounded both him, and the black panther.

"You fail to understand my intentions, son of Adamesk..." The lizard spoke with a grin. "You and I are one in the same."

Tai-Shen frowned, almost baring his fangs and losing his temper in the process. "How do you know, Adamesk...?"

"All gods, know of other gods, child." The lizard laughed out loud, opening his arms and raising both his large hands into the air, raising a sudden army of undead from the endless sea of insects on each side of Tai-Shen.

"Hmph... So I see... And all gods must be out to kill the acolytes of other gods, then?" Tai-Shen opened his own arms, starting to channel his own chi, but when he noticed that none of the undead around him were attacking, he withheld his plan to break them all and send this god back to hell.

"Son of Adamesk, you are much too quick to anger..." Rang Dou began to laugh. "Now... Look, look upon my chest... You will see that you and I are one in the same..."

Tai-Shen growled slightly, but tilted his head back to look towards the towering deity in front of him. The lizard was baring a gigantic hole in his chest that could be clearly seen through. If one wanted, they could even jump through the hole in the Lizard god's chest like it was a hurtle on an obstacle course. Tai-Shen frowned, upset... but he turned his eyes down towards his own chest... Staring at himself...

Where his heart would be, was a gigantic hole... But it was masked, well hidden behind his bandages and the large Yin-Yang pendant that hangs weightlessly upon his chest. Tai-Shen huffed, uninterested in the similarities that a lamenting god decided to draw between them, and instead... Tai-Shen began to turn and walk through the plethora of undead soldiers that was apparently supposed to hold him idle for Rang Dou.

"Where do you think you're going!" The lizard god shouted after the black panther who pushed through his minions without effort.

"You have nothing to offer me, Rang Dou, I am not interested in wasting my time on you, and finding a goddess on trust is a fools errand." Tai-Shen hissed as he made his escape, glaring at Rang Dou over his shoulder, but the moment Tai-Shen turned his attention back towards his front so he could see where he was going... He had to stop himself from almost piling head first into the very deity that he was attempting to distance himself from.

Rang Dou wasn't smiling, and the hole in his chest was only getting larger, spilling out more and more fog as time went on. "Son of Adamesk..." He began, but Tai-Shen cut him off.

"Look you sobbing saint, I have _no _time to waste on you- I have to find my student before he gets into something stupid and wreckless..."

Rang Dou held his frown on his face while he began to make a deal with Tai-Shen.

"Son of Adamesk... "He began, "You are searching for your son... are you not? I can take you to him..."

Tai-Shen's growling and frowning came to a quick halt. He turned his vision up to Rang Dou's face, questioning him for a moment. "...Why? Do you expect me to find your wife?"

"No..." Rang Dou shook his head, "My wife is a very, very strong goddess... And she is very adament against males..."

"She … hates men." Tai-Shen rose an eyebrow. "Then why did she marry you? Or... does she hate men now that she's married to you?"

"Those details—are unimportant..." Rang Dou began snarling himself now, baring his 300 teeth all in one frown, but to Tai-Shen, all that did was confirm his suspicion. "I want you to KILL her, Son of Adamesk."

"Kill a goddess..." Tai-Shen spat. "How in the hell do you expect me to do that, Rang Dou? I am _not_ a god, and _Adamesk's Grace_ does not make me strong enough to do that!"

"Ah, but I can see it in you Son of Adamesk..." Rang Dou began smiling. "You have the dark power... You have the devil's own swill running through your palms... You possess _Kouku Chi_, it's power alone is enough to siphon the very essence of life out of a god... Especially a drunken one like my wife."

Tai-Shen glanced down at his own two paws... They weren't even stained with the burn of _chi scarring yet_, and he's had Kouku chi for almost a full year in the realm of the living. But he began to think about the power that ran through him... Kouku chi didn't have the power to kill anyone or anything that was living... but it would strip the fatigue out of anyone in mere moments... If Tai-Shen were to get his paws on a man, grabbing their throat with both his paws, Tai-Shen's chi could sap the strength out of their muscles in merely sixty seconds... But who knew what it would do if his chi were to be used against a god... And that's only _if _it worked...

After pausing in silent contemplation for a few moments, Tai-Shen turned to glare up at Rang Dou. "I understand why I have this power now, then... Adamesk... Has a lot of enemies..."

"And if I understand correctly..." Rang Dou grinned, showing off those teeth again. "A very scant amount of followers..."

"Scant...?" Tai-Shen snarled, "I'm the only one.. There are no other children of Adamesk, or at least... none that are DEAD!"

"You're... undead?" Rang Dou took a step back, clearly stunned by his own lack of vigilance. "I see now... That is why... That's what is different about you..."

"...What? You mean you didn't suspect I was a zombie? I only have a gaping hole in my chest, and abnormally tinted fur..." Tai-Shen began to growl again. "And why are you giving me a run down of MY own life anyway? If you want me to kill your wife, you're going to have to provide **A LOT **more than just a free ride to the Valley of Peace, Rang Dou..."

Rang Dou grinned, "Oh, I certainly will... I can teach you many, many things that mortal man does not know, and I will show you my own powers... Ones that will aide you when the time comes to slaughter my mate..."

Tai-Shen frowned, glaring up at Rang Dou. "Exactly... Why am I slaughtering your wife again, Rang Dou? I don't believe you ever mentioned it?"

"She was the one that put this hole in my chest, Son of Adamesk... Her, and her accompliaces... I want them _all _dead... Then I will sacrifice myself, to you..."

Tai-Shen's eyes all of a suddenly went wide, like extra large dinner plates. "Y-you'd... Kill... yourself? And give all that power to me!" Tai-Shen shook his head, snarling. "You're lying, Rang Dou. No god in his right mind would sacrifice themselves and bestow their powers unto someone that WASN'T their successor! And I cannot be your successor without being your follower, and I am eternally pledged to Adamesk."

Rang Dou threw back his head all of a sudden in a very loud roar, one that shook the walls of the gourge that he and Tai-Shen were still occupying... Then, before Tai-Shen's eyes... down went Rang Dou, onto his knees. He had dropped down to one knee, while each and every skeletal soldier that was on each side of Shen-Mao fell to their hands and knees to bow before him, the Son of Adamesk.

"Son of Adamesk..." Rang Dou growled, with a fist over his chest. "I do not have much longer for this world, and my mate is a treacherous harlet... She would rather turn her back on our legacy and live her life among mortals... Drinking and giving up herself to the pleasures of the flesh with mortal women... My life is no longer worth preserving, and if I can see my traitorous bitch of a wife die by the hands of the very mortals she loves so much... Then I would gladly sacrifice myself, and all my power... Over to the one who did it. What you do with my power from then on, is none of my concern... This is my pledge."

Tai-Shen was shocked, for the very first time in his new life as Tai-Lung's savior... He couldn't believe what he was hearing... This Itsuse must have done something truly despicable to have a _God_ put a bounty of his own soul up as payment... But a pledge... A pledge coming from a dying god was something that no man would pass up... Tai-Shen wasn't exactly sure if he could trust Rang Dou, but he did know that he was getting a free ride, and a chance at nearly infinite power... If this lizard was any less than one hundred percent with him, Tai-Shen would kill him himself... So without stalling any further... Tai-Shen extended a hand towards Rang Dou.

"You had better not be lying to me, Rang Dou... Or I'll kill you myself..." Tai-Shen growled, his fur streaking silver for a moment.

"I am _deadly_ serious, ShoTetsu Fuzen Kusanagi..." Rang Dou grinned. He reached forward to grasp Tai-Shen's paw in his own hand, shaking it firmly... "Together... we shall kill Itsuse... Then you will have the power of a god..."

Tai-Shen nodded slowly, unhappy about this god _actually_ knowing his full name, but Tai-Shen let it go... He had a new, powerful ally, that would aide him in getting back to his son, and all he had to do was slaughter a goddess in cold blood... Piece of cake …

.

.

.

...right?

* * *

_A/N_: I believe I finished this chapter... A few months ago, I... can't remember exactly, but this was long over-due for posting. Forgive my errors and grammar. Hope you enjoy the latest entry and thanks for reading.

_Jue Mu Gong Ren – Grave Digger _

_Rang Duo – 'Solid Dirt' _


End file.
